Where is the COVID-19 Big Data?

The Big Data book by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier (a must read, BTW!) starts with a ground breaking story of Google predicting the spread of H1N1. By just analyzing what (and where and when) people input into the Google search box, the company was able to develop a precise, real-time model and an accurate prediction of the spread of the disease. Here is the paper that created a splash among health officials and computer scientists: Detecting Influenza Epidemics.

That was 11 years ago. 11 years in computer industry is like eternity. It was before AI, before machines were fluent with natural languages humans use, before all-mighty smartphones that everyone has now.

No, the illustration attached to this blog is not a map of the coronavirus spread. It is the map I keep routinely getting from Google. This one is my 2019 travel summary. Of course it is a high-level overview, but you can zoom in, down to a street level, or the flight# / assigned seat (Google Now always sends me boarding passes). All happening automatically and all that is required is that I carry a phone with me. IOW, they do know everything. Now even my financial transactions, as I use Google Pay routinely. No, I don't have a problem with that.

So what happened - why is Google silent today? With all that data you could easily imagine getting a phone notification like "Take a test for the virus, as you have been sitting on a plane next to the guy who was in the pub with 50 other people, with 7 of them testing positive.".  But it ain't happening.

This is the Big Data Fail.

So why? I think politics is the answer. Google (and other big data companies) have been severely beaten by politicians and media for collecting (and analyzing) the data. For all that "privacy that we deserve". So now we have it. Privacy comes with a cost. And that cost is that to protect our privacy, the Internet is not going to help us. We are back to the stone age, filling long paper forms with a pen (that is what airlines have been asking us in Europe since the virus started spreading here). And somebody is then manually analyzing these forms, trying to find a pattern.

I think this is the time we should wake up and stop lamenting about privacy and personal data protection. Or at least there should be an option to let Google, Facebook and others collect personal data for their users, and let the users to contribute that data to certain authorities in emergency. I would not hesitate doing that. So would millions of others, I believe. That could be one of many interesting lessons this pandemic would give us.