SAN FRANCISCO (Technology) – Facebook plans to start surveying some of its U.S. users as part of a research project by Carnegie Mellon University to generate self-reported coronavirus “heat maps”.
Facebook plans to display a link at the top of the News Feeds directing them to the survey to help the researchers predict where medical resources are needed.
Facebook may make surveys available to other countries’ users too if successful.
Google began querying users for the project last month through its Opinion Rewards app. The app exchanges survey responses from Google and its clients for app store credit.
Facebook stated that the Carnegie Mellon researchers “won’t share individual survey responses with Facebook and Facebook won’t share information about who you are with the researchers.”
Facebook will begin making new data categories available to epidemiologists with its Disease Prevention Maps program. It shares aggregated location data with partners in 40 countries working on COVID-19 response.
The data will be used by researchers to provide daily updates on how people are moving around in different areas to the country’s authorities, along with a few U.S. cities and states officials.
In addition to location data, the company will make a “social connectedness index” available showing the probability that people in different locations are Facebook friends, aggregated at the zip code level.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.
