10 countries are now tracking phone data as the coronavirus pandemic heralds a massive increase in surveillance

Vice reported that Iran's government endorsed a coronavirus diagnosis app that collected users' real-time location data.

On March 3, a message went out to millions of Iranian citizens telling them to install the app, called AC19, before going to a hospital or health center.

The app claimed to be able to diagnose the user with coronavirus by asking a series of yes or no questions. The app has since been removed from the Google Play store.

As part of a broad set of new surveillance measures approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 17, Israel's Security Agency will no longer have to obtain a court order to track individuals' phones. The new law also stipulates all data collected must be deleted after 30 days.

Netanyahu described the new security measures as "invasive" in an address to the nation.

"We'll deploy measures we've only previously deployed against terrorists. Some of these will be invasive and infringe on the privacy of those affected. We must adopt a new routine," said Netanyahu.

Singapore's Government Technology Agency and the Ministry of Health developed an app for contact tracing called TraceTogether which launched on March 20.

Per the Straits Times, the app is used: "to identify people who have been in close proximity — within 2m for at least 30 minutes — to coronavirus patients using wireless Bluetooth technology."

"No geolocation data or other personal data is collected," TraceTogether said in an explanatory video.

Taiwan has activated what it calls an "electronic fence," which tracks mobile phone data and alerts authorities when someone who is supposed to be quarantined at home is leaving the house.

"The goal is to stop people from running around and spreading the infection," said Jyan Hong-wei, head of Taiwan's Department of Cyber Security. Jyan added that local authorities and police should be able to respond to anyone who triggers an alert within 15 minutes.

On March 17 Austria's biggest telecoms network operator Telekom Austria AG announced it was sharing anonymized location data with the government.

The technology being used was developed by a spin-off startup out of the University of Graz, and Telekom Austria said it is usually used to measure footfall in popular tourist sites.

Woodhams told Business Insider that while collecting aggregated data sets is less invasive than other measures, how that data could be used in future should still be cause for concern.

"Much of the data may remain at risk from re-identification, and it still provides governments with the ability to track the movement of large groups of its citizens," said Woodhams.

The Belgian government gave the go-ahead on March 11 to start using anonymized data from local telecom companies.

Deutsche Telekom announced on March 18 it would be sharing data with the Robert Koch Institute (Germany's version of the CDC).

"With this we can model how people are moving around nationwide, on a state level, and even on a community level," a spokesperson for Deutsche Telekom told Die Welt.

Italy, which has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus outbreak, has also signed a deal with telecoms operators to collect anonymized location data.

As of March 18 Italy had charged 40,000 of its citizens with violating its lockdown laws, per The Guardian.

While nothing official has been announced yet, the UK is in talks with major telecoms providers including O2 and EE are in talks to provide large sets of anonymized data.

Like other European democracies, the UK doesn't seem to be exploring the more invasive method of contact tracing. However, it is considering using aggregated data to track the wider pattern of people's movements.