Covid-19: Google asks users about symptoms for Carnegie Mellon coronavirus forecasting effort

Google said it has ongoing partnerships with many academic institutions, including CMU. The university's DELPHI group has worked on forecasting flu trends in the United States for several years. — Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet Inc's Google said on Monday that over the last three days it had surveyed some users about their health at the request of Carnegie Mellon University researchers aiming to forecast the spread of coronavirus infections.

Google's Opinion Rewards app, which exchanges responses to surveys from Google and its clients for app store credit, queried users about whether anyone in their household has "a fever of at least 100 degrees along with a sore throat or a cough”, according to a question seen by Reuters.