Viral Surveillance: Governing Social Isolation in São Paulo, Brazil, During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In the context of COVID-19 pandemics, Brazilian cities implemented social isolation policies and deployed digital systems to monitor urban mobility. This article addresses the setting of two digital technologies based on massive cell-phone data collection by private companies in São Paulo state. We relied on secondary data from multiple sources (press conferences, interviews, newspaper articles, public documents), complemented by primary data from the authors’ ongoing research. In our analysis of heterogeneous and contingent techniques of pandemic control, we found that although these monitoring technologies seem to be effective in assisting public services and informing society, they also raise issues about performativity and transparency, with relevant consequences for their adoption in sanitary emergencies, and their potential legacy to São Paulo’s public safety management.