This research was solely based on data from anonymized users who have opted-in to provide access to their location data anonymously, through a GDPR-compliant framework. The analysis never singled out identifiable individuals and no attempts were made to link these data to third party data about an individual. In order to preserve privacy, residential areas are inferred at an aggregated geohash level, thereby allowing for demographic analysis while obfuscating the true home location of anonymous users and prohibiting misuse of data.
To make our results reproducible and to allow other researchers build upon our results, aggregated mobility data at the province level are publicly available. We made two major data releases that, in total, cover the period January 18 - June 26, 2020.
The first dataset (Dataset 1) covers the period January 18 - April 17. It is available on figshare. An extensive description of how the data have been generated is reported in the data descriptor published in Scientific Data.
The second dataset (Dataset 2) covers the period January 18 - June 26. The data format is the same used for Dataset 1 and the definitions of mobility metrics are identical. Also, file names follow the same notation. Dataset 2 is available on the Humanitarian Data Exchange at the following link: Italy Mobility COVID-19.
It is important to notice that Dataset 1 and Dataset 2 are based on different panels of users and the mobility metrics of the two datasets come with some intrinsic differences. To help researchers use the data correcly, we provide an indepth description of the two datasets, illustrating their differences and similarities in this document.
If you find the data helpful or you use the data for your research, please cite our work:
Pepe, E., Bajardi, P., Gauvin, L., Privitera, F., Lake, B., Cattuto, C., & Tizzoni, M. (2020).
COVID-19 outbreak response, a dataset to assess mobility changes in Italy following national lockdown. Scientific Data 7, 230 (2020).