When was the last time you went somewhere without your mobile device? Whether it’s for maps, weather updates, or social media, we willingly allow our phones to track our movements and activities. This collected data is often used for targeted advertising. However, experts now argue that mobility data can provide much more than that—it is crucial for understanding how humans interact with wildlife and should be available for research purposes with no cost. This information can help shape policy decisions on sustainability issues.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the abundance of mobility data has been utilized for targeted advertising purposes. However, in an article published on April 26 in the publication Cell Reports Sustainability, researchers argue that mobility data has the potential to serve a much broader purpose. They contend that it is essential for comprehending human-wildlife interactions and influencing policy decisions related to sustainability. Furthermore, they advocate for the unrestricted accessibility of this data for research purposes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were confined to their homes and urban areas were quiet, there were numerous reports of wildlife roaming the streets. For ecologists and researchers focused on sustainability, this phenomenon…The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to study the interactions between humans and wildlife, despite the tragic circumstances. Scientists, including some of the authors of the commentary, quickly came together to form the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative.
“Our global consortium has been researching how wildlife have responded to the sudden decrease in human mobility during the pandemic lockdowns, using tracking data from animal-attached devices,” said Christian Rutz, senior author and chair of the COVID-19 Bio-Logging Initiative at the University of St Andrews, UK. “Improving access to such analyses of human-wildlife interactions would be extremely beneficial.”
“We soon discovered that we had a lot of information about animal behavior, but getting access to information about human behavior was difficult,” explained Ruth Oliver, the lead author from the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Typically, data about human mobility is controlled by private companies and used for business purposes. This makes it challenging for researchers to obtain the data needed to study sustainability issues due to financial and logistical obstacles.”
In response to this problem, the authors suggest that governments and global organizations collaborate with companies to develop solutions for making human-mobility data more accessible.Human-mobility data is now accessible for research purposes. The researchers have looked at previous experiences with government-provided access to satellite remote sensing data and believe that human-mobility data could have the same potential if access barriers are removed. Unlike commercial human-mobility data, which includes detailed movement information of individual users and may raise privacy issues when shared, the researchers are asking for something more basic. They are envisioning aggregated datasets that do not contain personal information, but instead count the number of devices in a specific area over a set period of time.In the present time period, approximately 75% of people aged 10 or older, which is around 5.9 billion individuals globally, possess a mobile phone. This large amount of information can be used to understand the interconnectedness of human, animal, and ecosystem health. For instance, the analysis of this data could help identify areas where wildlife and humans come into frequent contact, allowing for better prevention of zoonotic diseases and management of invasive species.
“The datasets we are proposing are quite different from those needed for commercial purposes, so making them available to researchers would not negatively impact the market for more detailed data,” explains Oliver.
Indeed, this type of aggregated data could provide valuable insights into various research areas without compromising the need for more specific commercial data.According to Oliver and her team, sharing human mobility data with researchers can have positive impacts for private companies as well. By sharing aggregated data, there may be increased demand for customized, detailed data products, thereby expanding the global user base. Additionally, with the increasing focus on corporate digital responsibility, sharing data for conservation and sustainability research can help mitigate impacts and contribute to societal well-being.
“Our goal is for this movement to be a collaborative, community-driven effort. We aim to address the concerns of companies and work together to find mutually beneficial solutions. This includes addressing privacy policies related to human mobility data,” stated Oliver.Oliver states that the variation in mobility data worldwide makes it crucial for government bodies to facilitate access. He also emphasizes the importance of empowering individuals to consider how their data is utilized. The study titled “Access to human-mobility data is essential for building a sustainable future” can be found in Cell Reports Sustainability.