In Loco adapts its geolocation technology to help combat Covid-19

In Loco, a company operating in the information security and anti-fraud sector, a national reference in geolocation technologies, has made its technology available to public agencies and authorities in combating the spread of the coronavirus or Covid-19. Initiative has the support of ABES.

From a database with more than 60 million mobile devices across Brazil, the company created the Social Isolation Index. Unprecedented, it allows mapping the movement of people within specific regions and measuring which point to greater social distance, while respecting the privacy of each user.

“With our technology, we can help fight the spread of the coronavirus. In an encrypted and aggregated form, without data that can directly identify a specific user, our survey allows the responsible agencies to act directly in the areas at risk or most affected by the virus ”, explains André Ferraz, CEO of In Loco.

With technology 30 times more accurate than GPS, In Loco's software unit is integrated into partner applications for security, authentication and counting visits to establishments. The only information collected from mobile devices is your location.

To compose the Social Isolation Index, this information is encrypted and aggregated by neighborhood, becoming statistical data that preserves people's privacy. That done, the data begin to indicate the movement of this group of people within the neighborhoods. Thus, a low percentage of isolation represents a large number of people entering or leaving a certain neighborhood or region.

Anyone can access the data. In Loco made available on its website - inloco.com.br, the Covid-19 Brazilian Map. In it, the population will be able to follow the national index and the division by state, with the week's history. The content will be updated daily, always in the morning, with the information from the previous day.

Partnerships

The company has made the statistical data available, free of charge, to public agencies throughout Brazil - the state governments of Alagoas, Amapá, Amazonas, Ceará, Maranhão, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais have already signed a partnership. Pará, Paraíba, Piauí, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and the prefectures of Recife, Teresina and Aracaju. The data make it possible to intensify awareness actions for the population.

Through the Index, governments are able to optimize work and send sound cars to warn about the importance of social detachment and to advise people on the hygiene care needed to combat Covid-19. The technology also allows sending push notification alerts via government applications, such as public transport, for example.

Privacy and security

In Loco's technology was developed to respect people's privacy. This means that the company is unable to directly identify users of the mapped smartphones. “The only information collected is the location of the device, through sensors present on smartphones, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, among others. Therefore, we do not have access to civil identification data such as name, ID, CPF and e-mail address, for example ”, explains Ferraz.

In the case of the Social Isolation Index, the reports sent to public bodies and authorities contain only cartographic and statistical data. In them it is possible to see the percentage of people who have not moved from their neighborhoods. All data collected are aggregated and pseudomized.

In addition, for governments that are shipping the In Loco SDK (software development kit) in their applications, a message is displayed in the app for each user, giving them the option to share or not their location. The message informs that the data will be used exclusively to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The company is publicly committing itself to deleting the isolation index data after the end of the pandemic.

All data collection follows the recommendations of the General Data Protection Law, the Civil Framework of the Internet and other regulations in force at the time.

Next steps

In Loco is working on building other solutions to help contain the COVID-19 crisis. One of them is the mapping of agglomerations. It is already possible to identify when a large number of people gather in a given location. This information can contribute to the intensification of dispersion measures.

On the In Loco page (inloco.com.br), it is also possible to find any explanation of how the technology is applied and the company's concern with ensuring users' privacy.