Covid-19: Octopus to provide data to University of Hong Kong researchers on city residents’ movements to check virus spread

Professor Gabriel Leung, dean of HKU’s faculty of medicine, earlier said transport data would make it easier to track the transmission of the virus. Octopus says the data will be only of aggregate value and will not reveal the identity of any individuals or the usage of any particular card. — SCMP

E-payment service provider Octopus has agreed to provide data to researchers from the University of Hong Kong studying transmission patterns of the coronavirus and the movements of city residents to boost measures to contain the disease.

The company on Thursday said it agreed to provide “aggregate statistical data relating to the usage of Octopus cards” for research projects at the request of HKU’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine.