CDC bought access to Americans' phone location data to monitor compliance with lockdowns, social distancing, and more, contracts show

The CDC paid $420,000 to one company and $208,000 to another, gaining access to location data from a minimum of 55 million cellphone users, the purchase orders show. The Mobility Insights Data obtained under this Contract will be available for CDC agency-wide use and will support numerous CDC priorities. Mandatory business closuresMandatory school closuresVaccine campaignsThey admittedly also bought the data to monitor citizens for non-COVID-related reasons, including:Travel to parksPhysical activity (!) Although the data is purportedly anonymous, it has been shown that it can still be used to identify individuals. The CDC, of course, claims that the data they received had extensive privacy protections and could not be used to identify individuals.