Almost everyone these days carries a device that tracks their movements and shares that information with an array of companies.

They may use it to offer everything from food deliveries and car rides to virtual monster hunts. It's ironic, then, that we're so reluctant to use the same capabilities to fight a pandemic that could kill millions of people.

Thanks to the location and personal data that we share with the likes of Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. via our mobile phones, the world's population is currently under routine surveillance in a manner that would have made George Orwell blench.