As part of their ongoing fight against COVID-19, Apple has added a mobility data trends tools from Apple Maps to help governments and health institutions.
Today, Apple has added a mobility data trends tool to aid their COVID-19 efforts. The new feature will add Mobility Trends for Cities and Countries or Regions, to show the change in volume of people traveling around the cities, even if it’s driving, walking or taking public transit.
This mobility data may provide helpful insights to local governments and health authorities and may also be used as a foundation for new public policies by showing the change in volume of people driving, walking or taking public transit in their communities. – Apple states.
As always, Apple cares about users’ privacy and assures everyone that their Apple ID will not be associated with the new feature, nor exposed to anyone, as the Maps app itself does not keep track of the requested directions, but only for the general number of them, from everyone.
Apple has built privacy into the core of Maps from the beginning. Data collected by Maps, like search terms, navigation routing, and traffic information, is associated with random, rotating identifiers that continually reset, so Apple doesn’t have a profile of your movements and searches. This enables Maps to provide a great experience, while protecting user privacy.
