What our Google smartphone data tells us about Australia's reaction to coronavirus crisis

The idea that your smartphone is tracking you might normally put fear into many people, but, following the drastic the changes society has had to make amid the coronavirus crisis, the data our mobile phones are providing shows that Australians are adhering to the guidelines governments are issuing.

Google has assembled a vast amount of data as a tool to show just how much our movements have changed in a just a few weeks. It is all completely anonymous so no single individual can be tracked.

Across Australia visits to retail and recreation facilities such as restaurants, theme parks, cafes, museums and the movies has dropped 45 per cent compared to the baseline of early February.

The great toilet paper rush of 2020 will forever be remembered by this Google Location data showing a huge spike in our visits to Grocery stores in the middle of March, however in recent days that has dropped below the normal benchmark – demonstrating a level of adherence to the Stay at Home message

Working nine-to-five has changed too, a huge shift in our workplace visits means the normal weekly trend has been turned on its head.

While our time at home is most certainly up.

State-by-state the data differs ever so slightly, showing that there is a national trend to adhere to the government's Stay at Home messaging.

Google state clearly in their release of this data that it should not be used for any medical diagnostic or treatment purposes, simply to demonstrate the public response to social distancing guidance.

Governments and health officials where necessary can and will likely be drawing on mobile phone location tracking from our telcos to ensure that people are adhering to strict quarantine guidelines.

These graphs are a visual representation of what we're seeing on the streets of our towns and cities across Australia, by and large, Australians have made radical changes to their movements in response to this crisis.