Updates
EPIC Seeks Records About White House Plan to Use Cellphone Data for Coronavirus Tracking
March 24, 2020
EPIC has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Office of Science and Technology Policy seeking information about the White House plan to use cell phone location data for public health surveillance. According to news reports, the White House has sought the assistance of large tech companies including Facebook, Apple, and Google, to use cell phone location data. It is not clear at this time whether the U.S. program is lawful or how the data will be used. EPIC has asked the OSTP to provide "all policies, proposals, and guidance documents for the collection of cell phone location data in connection with the coronavirus" and also "any privacy assessments, including but not limited to privacy threshold assessments and privacy impact assessments, related to the collection of cell phone location data in connection with the coronavirus."
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