RAPID: Internet Traffic and Compliance with Government Stay-at-Home Measures

Within the US and across the globe, a growing number of people are being placed under official lockdowns or stay-at-home policies as coronavirus cases and fatalities mount. Isolation (or quarantine) is considered one of the most effective public health measures to limit the spread of infectious diseases, and the apparent success of this measure in China, South Korea and Singapore suggest it will hold true for the coronavirus. The use of isolation and related public health measures have always been controversial given the political, ethical and socioeconomic issues they raise. Part of the challenge is the no-obvious link between the level of compliance with these measures and their effectiveness. The proposed research agenda is motivated by a simple observation - as people comply with stay-at-home measures, one would expect to see a significant change in network traffic on off-peak hours as parents and children work remotely. The goal of the proposed RAPID research agenda is to explore the potential of network traffic change as a proxy of citizen compliance with stay-at-home measures with the long-term goal of providing public health authorities with the basis for an evidence-based analysis of their effectiveness.