Millions 'unwittingly tracked' by phone after vaccination to see if movements changed
Millions of Britons had their movements "unwittingly tracked" using their mobile phones to see if vaccinated people moved about more after their jabs, the Telegraph has learnt.
A report from the SPI-B committee of Government scientists admitted that data from one in ten peoples' phones were tracked in February, without their owners' express knowledge.
The figures were used by researchers at Oxford University, who carried out studies for the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), which advises the Sage group of Government scientific advisers.
Using “cell phone mobility data for 10 per cent of the British population”, the Oxford University experts found 4,254 individuals were vaccinated.
This group was then tracked through 40 “CDR [call data records] with corresponding location observations” every day, and monitored for behavioural change by analysing their data for the week prior and week after the vaccination event.
The report said that “various robustness checks are undertaken by age, distance from home to vaccination point” were checked.
The experts also looked at “gyration (radius of gyration on vaccination day), time (opening hours) and home (do they go home directly after vaccination)”.
By comparing the movements of the vaccinated people against a different control group the scientists found that their “average pre-vaccination mobility increased by 218 meters [sic]”.
Campaigners against greater state surveillance in the UK said Britons would be “disturbed to discover they were unwittingly tracked and subjected to behavioural analysis via their phones”.
Silkie Carlo, a spokesman for Big Brother Watch, said: "No one expects that by going to get a vaccine they will be tracked and monitored by their own Government.
“This is deeply chilling and could be extremely damaging to public trust in medical confidentiality.
"Between looming Covid passports and vaccine phone surveillance, this Government is turning Britain into a Big Brother state under the cover of Covid. This should be a wake up call to us all."
A Government spokesman said: "All the data sets used in this research are set out in the paper which makes clear that the mobile phone location data used is GDPR-compliant and has been provided from a company that collected, cleaned, and anonymized the data.
"The data is at cell tower rather than individual level and the researchers were granted access to the data set under a research contract with ethical approval provided to the researchers from the University of Oxford, working on behalf of SPI-B".
A Government source said: "This analysis is at the cell tower level of anonymiZed data and is therefore not individual surveillance.
"This coarse resolution of data at the cell phone tower level can range from around 300 meters to 1-2 kilometres and even up to 12 kilometres in rural areas.
"Although the location is smaller in urban areas, the population density is also higher, meaning it is not possible to identify individuals.
"It is not GPS tracing data which is commonly used by some large commercial companies for targeted advertising."
The source added the project was approved by an Ethics committee at Oxford University, with the data "provided by the company as part of the Covid-19 response of sharing data for the public good.
"This data is incidental and automatically generated when people use their mobile phones and is part of the general terms and conditions.
"Data was extensively anonymiZed by the company before it is used for research.
"Users are given a new token of identification each month to preserve anonymity and the only basic demographic data that is shared is age within a two-year bracket and self-reported sex.
"Only a small group of pre-approved researchers had access to the data."
@nabob @Pinkaholic79 💖🦄🌺 @roz @renatew5😺🐶 @Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 @Flossy 🧁🧁🧁 @Flotson @harryflatters @Tanith @margaret.s @andym.aat and any one interested
We are not quite there yet @duchess - still staying with Jonathan in Lewes - no blood spilt yet! Signed papers and large amount (for us!!) of 'wonga' winged it's way to conveyancers last week. We desperately hope exchange will happen next week. It is indeed an 'Oxbow' - looking at ridge/hedge line across middle of photo, the river was redirected (probably by the Victorians but I don't know) to the sea by a straight new cut, roughly following that line.
Are you enjoying Eastbourne, @harryflatters ? My aunt used to live there in the olden days. That pic is good; an Oxbow lake waiting to happen, I reckon! I do love a bit of meandering....
@happygirl, @harryflatters @Flossy 🧁🧁🧁, @margaret.s- it seems to me to be "fake news". I don't suppose it would be much use to anyone to track everyone. Just a feeling; I'm happy to be disabused!
Personally I'm ok with it. I don't think my use would be any help though as I don't really use my phone outside the house in fact I don't always take it with me.
Can't be as nosey as Google.
As far as I can see, this is pretty 'broad brush' stuff and not 'tracking' individuals as such. Don't think it's anything to do with whether you have an 'app' of a particular sort or not, what type of phone you have or whether you have disabled gps 'position tracking' or not (if you have a smart phone that has this feature). Location at 'tower' level is generated by any phone actually being used to make a phone call. Suspect far worse than this is being carried out in our name that we don't know about, almost certainly by GCHQ - a good thing too! They are trying to keep us safe from the ever increasing number of lunatics out there!!
I Don't have nhs app because I didn't like the idea of being tracked.
They can spy on me all they like I am not doing anything wrong - maybe that's because I am not doing anything?
I read a similar thing on FB, went thru some of the comments. Some ppl were saying they had to self isolate, and not been in contact with anyone. You know @Happygirl I never liked the idea of the app in the first place, I always had it in my mind it's a way to spy on you.
Also i remembered when i was a little girl, my Father said to me, in years to come there will be so many camera's about that you will be tracked wherever you go,i guess he was right ha haaaaaaaaaa
I do not like this, OKAY, they said......This analysis is at the cell tower level of anonymized data and is therefore not individual surveillance. AND.......This data is incidental and automatically generated when people use their mobile phones and is part of the general terms and conditions.
I just do not like the sound of it and that is my own opinion, from little acorns do big oaks grow........food for thought there.