EU Commissioner defends plans to acquire telecom data during coronavirus outbreak

According to Euractiv, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton supports the Commission’ plans to acquire mobile data from EU telecom operators to address the coronavirus outbreak. Breton stated that the acquisition of certain datasets allows for a clearer reading of “the impact of the confinement measures taken by member states.” After recent discussions between Breton and CEOs of European telecommunication companies, the Commission requested telecom firms to hand over “anonymised mobile metadata to help analysing the patterns of diffusion of the coronavirus.”