CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

Re:CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans follow... by dfee on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @05:51PM (#31254080)

The mental gymnastics of this comment.

> bound by boards and ethics committees

Is there any evidence an ethics committee was party to this? If in fact, one was, they found it ethical to consume personally identifiable data without those persons’ authorization?

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Re:CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans follow... by cinntaile on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @06:21PM (#31254352)

https://www.cdc.gov/os/integrity/hrpo/index.htm

I assume this classifies as research so it should be subject to the same ethical requirements.

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Re:CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans follow... by peyton on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @06:45PM (#31254538)

Going off “CDC’s Policy on Distinguishing Public Health Research and Public Health Nonresearch” linked from that page, I would guess this activity they’d call “nonresearch.”

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Re:CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans follow... by cinntaile on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @07:06PM (#31254743)

I read the guidelines for compliance and my interpretation is that it fulfills the requirements for research while it does not fulfill the requirements for nonresearch. The scope of this reaches all of society instead of the study participants.

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Re:CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans follow... by renewiltord on Tuesday May 03, 2022 @06:21PM (#31254349)

I don't think ethics committees are worth the chairs they sit on, but "personally identifiable data"? How did you conclude that it was personally identifiable?

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