At SafeGraph, we’ve always been dedicated to a single mission: to democratize access to clean, accurate, and comprehensive geospatial data on physical places. From the very beginning, we have provided our data for free to the academic community via SafeGraph’s Academic Program. This has enabled researchers to publish papers and uncover insights that will lead to better policy-making, new innovations, and business growth.
This kind of life-changing research is even more critical in times of crisis.
So, to play our part in the fight against the COVID-19 health crisis—and its devastating impact on the global economy—we decided to expand our program further, making our foot traffic data free for non-profit organizations and government agencies at the local, state, and federal level. We also created multiple new COVID-19 datasets and dashboards:
SafeGraph also formed an interdisciplinary consortium of 1000+ organizations to respond to the impending health and economic crisis. The consortium includes the following:
The highest levels of the federal government, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are actively tapping into SafeGraph data daily in the following ways:
The CDC also conducted research using SafeGraph’s social distancing data to determine the efficacy of stay-at-home orders. Published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the research zoomed in on NYC, SF, Seattle, and New Orleans and found that mobility decreased in each city every time a new social distancing order was issued. As noted by CNN and the Washington Post, this is the first early ‘proof’ from a major government agency that shows people actually are listening to stay-at-home orders.
Access to accurate data has also proven invaluable in helping city officials across the country tailor their response efforts:
"I'm proud L.A. not only stepped up the quickest in the country but also the most extensively. I nervously looked at how many people would do this. I looked at the messaging. I looked at the data, which has guided us this whole time. I looked at cell phone data and apps movement that people got to me. We earned an A, best in the country. We were the biggest reduction of movement of the counties in Southern California and tied for the best in the state, so we did everything we could with the knowledge we had as quickly as we could..." – Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, a number of research papers have already been published that leverage SafeGraph data in a big way and reveal different perspectives on how the novel coronavirus has shaped current society, including:
We couldn’t have created this incredible forum of researchers, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and government bodies without the support of our many partners who enable us to make access to clean, accurate, and comprehensive data possible for everyone.
To those who made their platforms available for accessing and analyzing data: Snowflake, OmniSci, Nexla, DataRobot, ThinkData Works, CARTO, Kaggle, Domo, Databricks, Acuratio.
To those who made their data and data services available: Facteus, Affinity Solutions, and SmartyStreets.
To those who assisted with outreach, helping us get the consortium in front of more people: InsideView, Muck Rack, Prowly, Power Almanac, GovSearch, Clearbit, and Slack.
This is just the beginning. Open access to data allows us to transform the world for the better. We look forward to making a continued impact, changing the course of the COVID-19 crisis on our businesses, in our local communities, and, ultimately, for people all around the world. Thank you again to our partners and special thanks to everyone fighting the good fight.
Academic researchers, non-profits, and government organizations: join SafeGraph’s COVID-19 Data Consortium to get SafeGraph data at no-cost.
If you are with a for-profit business, please contact our team today to learn how these datasets can help your business. In these uncertain times, we are working flexibly with companies to help them navigate this unfolding health and economic crisis.
That's it – that's all we do. We want to understand the physical world and power innovation through open access to geospatial data. We believe data should be an open platform, not a trade secret. Information should not be hoarded so that only a few can innovate.
