New Mexico is using data from cellphones to create models of what the coronavirus might do in the state.
The state partnered with a third party, Descartes Labs in Santa Fe, to obtain the location information from cellphone users to track if coronavirus cases are being brought into the state, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Thursday.
The governor also said the state hopes to start screening the temperature of truckers hauling materials through the state. As of Thursday, the state did not have enough no-contact thermometers to start yet.
“We’re really nervous that this virus will follow travelers into the state,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement to CNN.
New Mexico has already placed signage and roadblocks throughout the state urging travelers not to visit top tourist destinations, including several tribal communities and pueblos. Lujan Grisham noted the state is fearful that small tribal towns could suffer large outbreaks of the virus. She also worries that tourists will drain resources needed in small towns.
Cellphone data has already been used to track how the coronavirus spread from spring breakers in Florida to other parts of the nation. The Trump administration has also spoken with Google and Facebook to determine whether cellphone data would help the federal government’s coronavirus models, according to a report from CNN.
Privacy activists have expressed concern about the government using third-party data to track people during the pandemic. The data points are supposed to be anonymous when handed to the government, but that encryption can be reversed.
