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Mobile tracking, migrants and Covid

2020 By Bureau of Investigative Journalism
An image of a map, showing North Africa. There are also icons of a satellite, mobile phone and person.
Image by La Loma, based on a diagram used in "Big Data for Migration Study", 2019, a study into the potential applications of migration tracking services by the European Space Agency (ESA). Published in the investigation “Monitoring being pitched to fight Covid-19 was tested on refugees", 2020 by Crofton Black, for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

During lockdowns around the world, social media, satellite and location data was used to draw conclusions about who stayed home and who didn’t, or couldn’t afford to. This mobility data was also used to make predictions about where the pandemic would spread. Investigator Crofton Black found that these data collection techniques were first piloted on migrants prior to the pandemic. Mobility analysis and prediction can be critical for response in a crisis, but who consents to being tracked, and who has access to this information about the movements of vulnerable populations?

Map showing the north of Africa, Europe and Asia in red with different lines going through it.
A mock up from an ESA study into the potential applications of migration tracking services. Published in the investigation Monitoring being pitched to fight Covid-19 was tested on refugees, 2020 by Crofton Black, for The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
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