Kansas’ review of cellphone GPS data raises privacy concerns

BY AP WIRE ON 

Kansas’ top health official is facing questions over the state’s monitoring of GPS data gleaned from people’s cellphones about how residents have cut down on travel during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Lee Norman has cited information provided by data-analysis firm Unacast on a publicly accessible website. The public-interest law firm Kansas Justice Institute is demanding that Democratic Gov.

Laura Kelly provide more information about how the information is collected and used. Unacast said in a statement Thursday that it uses aggregated mobility and anonymous data from tens of millions of devices but it “never shows individuals’ behavior.”