CDC tracking millions of Americans through cellphones during COVID-19 ‘pandemic’

    I spy with my little eye something that begins with you…

 As if it were not bad enough that the state governments, and to a lesser but still concerning degree the Federal government, are slowly taking away, or at least abusing, most of our rights, we are now learning that the government is using this “invisible menace” to track the movements of millions of Americans.

  Here is more:

Government officials across the U.S. are using location data from millions of cellphones in a bid to better understand the movements of Americans during the coronavirus pandemic and how they may be affecting the spread of the disease.

The federal government, through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state and local governments have started to receive analyses about the presence and movement of people in certain areas of geographic interest drawn from cellphone data, people familiar with the matter said. The data comes from the mobile advertising industry rather than cellphone carriers.

The aim is to create a portal for federal, state and local officials that contains geolocation data in what could be as many as 500 cities across the U.S., one of the people said, to help plan the epidemic response.

 It shows which retail establishments, parks and other public spaces are still drawing crowds that could risk accelerating the transmission of the virus, according to people familiar with the matter.

The data can also reveal general levels of compliance with stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, according to experts inside and outside government, and help measure the pandemic’s economic impact by revealing the drop-off in retail customers at stores, decreases in automobile miles driven and other economic metrics.

  Although I know it does not matter I am one of those people who only turn my phone’s GPS on when I am going to use it but what makes this even more troubling is the fact that the government has gotten around the cellphone carriers and is using the advertising information to spy on our every move. I guess this is supposed to make us feel better however:

The data—which is stripped of identifying information like the name of a phone’s owner—could help officials learn how coronavirus is spreading around the country and help blunt its advance.

  For now my friends, for now. It is only a matter of time before the watchers see patterns and want more information and then our anonymity will be gone as well, if we really have it in the first place. 

  The government has already learned more about the American people during this “crisis” than any which came before it, mostly that the American people will lay down and quickly trade our essential liberties for some perceived security and this is just the beginning. When this “crisis” is over there will be another one, and another one, and another one and in each instance the government is going to push the envelope a little more. This is just the beginning…

  As always, malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium