Why did the CDC buy data about cellphone users? Are they being entirely truthful?

From The Epoch Times. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) purchased data from tracking companies to monitor compliance with lockdowns, according to contracts with the firms.

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The CDC paid one firm $420,000 and another $208,000. That bought access to location data from at least 55 million cellphone users.

The contracts, approved under emergency review due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were aimed at providing the CDC “with the necessary data to continue critical emergency response functions related to evaluating the impact of visits to key points of interest, stay at home orders, closures, re-openings and other public heath communications related to mask mandate, and other merging research areas on community transmission of SARS-CoV-2,” the contracts, obtained by The Epoch Times, state. …

Under a heading labeled “potential use cases” for the data, the CDC said it could be used to try to connect the forced closures of bars and restaurants with COVID-19 infections and death rates, as well as try to assess the impact of state restrictions on close contact between people outside of their home.

The data could also be used to monitor adherence to mandated or recommended quarantines after arrival from another state and to examine the correlation of mobility patterns and spikes in COVID-19 cases at facilities such as churches, concerts, and grocery stores. It would also enable examining movement restrictions such as curfews to show “patterns” and “compliance,” the contracts state. …

Early Research Published, Unclear What Purchased Data Used For

The CDC, early in the pandemic, received the data for free from the firms, SafeGraph and Cuebiq.

CDC researchers in 2020 published two studies utilizing the data. One focused on data from four U.S. metropolitan areas, finding that people moved around less when measures such as social distancing were imposed. Another found that harsh lockdown orders led to decreased movement, while there was more movement after states began lifting the orders.

Other researchers have also used the mobility data for studies.

No CDC studies were published after the agency bought the data and a CDC spokesperson did not provide examples of what the purchased data were used for. …

While the data is deanonymized, it can be used to identify people, researchers have shown. …

A SafeGraph spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that the firm “compiles and provides objective, verifiable facts about physical locations around the world—like the address or operating hours of a particular point of interest,” adding the data it sells cannot be “de-anonymized,” or “used to identify or to ‘track’ the movements or behavior of individual persons.” …

Cuebiq did not respond to a request for comment. …

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(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: By James Gathany, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – https://www.cdc.gov/media/subtopic/library/building.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26840361)