Swisscom analyses support the fight against the coronavirus
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has requested analyses from Swisscom in order to check whether the measures to protect against infection with the coronavirus are being complied with. The analyses include information on mobility and crowds in public areas.
Swisscom's evaluations show that the Swiss population has significantly reduced travel activities. However, at no time does the FOPH receive location data from Swisscom, only statistics and visualisations. The data on which the analyses and visualisations are based are anonymised and aggregated. It is not possible to draw conclusions about individuals.
Platform is already used in the smart city context
On 21 March, the Federal Council banned gatherings of more than five people in public spaces (Article 7c paragraph 1 COVID-19 Ordinance 2). The authorities would now like to receive indications as to whether this measure to protect the population is being complied with. Based on Swisscom's Mobility Insights platform, the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) receives analyses of mobility and gatherings of people in public spaces.
The platform and corresponding analyses have already been used in the smart city environment, such as in Montreux or in Pully.
Initial evaluations show that since the assembly ban of more than five people, people have been travelling significantly less. For example, travel activity, measured in terms of kilometres travelled, was down by around 50 per cent across Switzerland at the end of March compared to a typical previous month. It stands out that the population in Ticino has most clearly reduced travel.
Complete anonymization and aggregation of data
In order to make crowds visible, the Mobility Insight platform (based on Art. 45b of the Telecommunications Act) identifies areas with at least 20 SIM cards on an area of 100 by 100 metres. The analyses are based on approximate location data going back 24 hours.
In order to obtain indications of how the travel activities of the population have changed, the platform shows the approximate mobility of Swisscom SIM cards in an area (e.g. a canton) within a certain period of time. The information, which is generated in the mobile network for technical reasons, is automatically anonymised immediately after it is generated and then processed in aggregated form for the analyses.
FOPH does not receive location data, only visualizations
At no time does the FOPH receive location data, but only statistics and visualisations that Swisscom can calculate from this data. The analyses/visualisations are completely anonymised and aggregated, i.e. only recognisable as a group value. This means that no conclusions can be drawn about individuals and no individual movement profiles are possible.
The requirements of the Data Protection Act and the ethical principles that Swisscom follows in its use of data are complied with in full. As soon as Covid 19 Regulation 2 no longer applies, no more analyses will be made available to the FOPH.
Customers have control over their data at all times
Customers can decide for themselves for which Smart Data products and services Swisscom may use their anonymised and aggregated (i.e. highly summarised) data (opt-out). An opt-out can be made via the Customer Centre under My Profile in the "Data protection" section. This means that the data will not be used for further analyses. (Source: Swisscom)
