Millions ‘Unwittingly Tracked’ by Phone After Vaccination to See if Movements Changed

(The Telegraph) – Millions of Britons had their movements “unwittingly tracked” using their mobile phones to see if vaccinated people moved about more after their jabs, the Telegraph has learnt.

A report from the SPI-B committee of Government scientists admitted that data from one in ten peoples’ phones were tracked in February, without their owners’ express knowledge.

The figures were used by researchers at Oxford University, who carried out studies for the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours (SPI-B), which advises the Sage group of Government scientific advisers.

Using “cell phone mobility data for 10 per cent of the British population”, the Oxford University experts found 4,254 individuals were vaccinated.

This group was then tracked through 40 “CDR [call data records] with corresponding location observations” every day, and monitored for behavioural change by analysing their data for the week prior and week after the vaccination event.

The report said that “various robustness checks are undertaken by age, distance from home to vaccination point” were checked.

The experts also looked at “gyration (radius of gyration on vaccination day), time (opening hours) and home (do they go home directly after vaccination)”.

By comparing the movements of the vaccinated people against a different control group the scientists found that their “average pre-vaccination mobility increased by 218 meters [sic]”.

Campaigners against greater state surveillance in the UK said Britons would be “disturbed to discover they were unwittingly tracked and subjected to behavioural analysis via their phones”.

Silkie Carlo, a spokesman for Big Brother Watch, said: “No one expects that by going to get a vaccine they will be tracked and monitored by their own Government. Read Full Article >