CDC Tracked Millions of Phones to See If Americans Followed COVID Lockdown Order

[rcjordan]

^{Dystopia 101}
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vymn/cdc-tracked-phones-location-data-curfews

[ergophobe]

This is the problem with all the tracking and the surveillance economy. Once the data exists, people find "good" uses for it.

I would see this all the time talking to neophyte marketing managers. They ask if certain tracking or targeting is possible, even though they themselves would be horrified if they thought through the implications of that type of tracking (like "Can we show a discount offer in Google Ads to everyone who has visited our competitors' websites?").

Once the data exists, the temptation to use it becomes overwhelming.

It's like the old saw about military tech: every weapon that gets invented is eventually used. It's not accurate, of course, but it's "true" in a more basic way.