Welcome to the Tech Mem Ride Home for Monday, March 23rd, 2020. I'm Brian McCullough.

Today, the pros and cons of using big data cell phones and the surveillance economy to combat the

coronavirus. More iPhone rumors from Ming Chiquo is the Oculus quest

bringing VR into the mainstream and how to block your messy background when

you're on a Zoom conference call for work.

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

We live in a world where data is ubiquitous, data is king, perhaps it is inevitable that governments

around the world would turn to the trove of personal data that is abundant in the world right now to help combat COVID-19.

Reuters is reporting that mobile operators in Italy, Germany, and Austria are now sharing anonymized

aggregated data with health authorities to map people's

concentrations and movements.

Quote, that is less invasive than the approach taken by countries in China, Taiwan and South Korea,

which use smartphone location readings to trace the context of individuals who have tested positive

or to enforce quarantine orders.

In Germany where schools and restaurants are closing and people have been told to work from home, if they can, the data donated by Deutsche Telecom offer insights into whether people are complying. Health Zar Lothar Weiler said, quote,

if people remain as mobile as they were until a week ago,

it will be difficult to contain the virus.

Weiler, president of the Robert Koch Institute, said on Wednesday,

Germany is entering the epidemic's exponential phase.

Wiler added, warning that without progress and reducing person to person contacts

as many as 10 million people could be infected in two or three months.

However, privacy advocates are skeptical about whether sharing

...