Your phone helped plan during the pandemic.
And it did it all while in your pocket, or handbag.
Wherever it was, tech giants tracked itand the NSW government used the data to inform its COVID-19 predictions.
Researchers have detailed how movement information logged by Facebook and Google helped predict pandemic peaks.
The data was fed into models developed by researchers at the University of NSW, which informed the state governments roadmap out of lockdown.
The NSW government's modelling accurately predicted that cases would peak at 1,100 to 2,000 cases per day in mid-September.
Case numbers topped out at a daily average of 1,430 on September 13.
Since the start of the pandemic, COVIDSafe has only identified 17 close contacts that weren't found by state officials.
The model over-estimated hospitalisations peaking at2,200 to 3,900 per day in late October.
They actually hit a daily average of 1,235 on September 21.
Google tracks users' movements via their mobile device even when a Google app is not in use when location history is turned on.
During an online presentation hosted by the university yesterday, it was revealed the models were able to show how movement in Sydneys local government areas (LGAs) of concern fell once stricter social distancing restrictions were imposed.
They also showed that by early August, movement in Greater Sydney had fallen to the same levels seen during the Melbourne lockdown in 2020.
Epidemiologist Deborah Cromer, who performed the modelling, said that while other sources to monitor movement were available, the Facebook and Google data was the most useful.
"There are other non-public sources, but many of them lack a 'pre-COVID baseline'and so they are difficult to calibrate," she said.
Google began publishing anonymised, aggregated movement data for most countries down to local government level when the pandemic began.
It breaks down movement around retail and recreation, groceries and pharmacies, parks, transit stations, workplacesand homes.
Facebook, along with every other app on a smartphone, can also track your location unless you tell it not to.
It began publishing movement data and the proportions of people who stayed in one location for 24 hours as part of its Data for Good program.
Freya Shearer, from the Doherty modelling consortium at the University of Melbourne, said understanding how people moved around was critical to controlling the virus when it re-emerged this year.
"We've been fortunate to have access to mobility data which has been made available by technology companies," she said.
Modelling done by the University of NSW was also used to predict how different vaccine strategies might work.
It showed that targeting vaccines at people aged between 16 to 39 in Sydneys south-west would have a big impact on stopping transmission of the virus.
James Wood, from the University of NSW, said the modelling showed that the strategy would reduce the outbreak size in Fairfield and Campbelltown.
"What we found was that a targeted program would bring forward control by about two weeks in the sense that we need to get about another 30 per cent reduction in transmission around about the 20th of August," he said.
Facebook and Google were contacted for comment.
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How your phone, and tech giants Google and Facebook, helped shape NSW's pandemic response - ABC News
