The EU will follow initiatives established in a number of Asian countries by using mobile data sharing to track and counter the coronavirus, while adhering to privacy rules.
Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange and five other telecoms providers have agreed to share mobile location data with the European Commission, lobbying group GSMA said on Wednesday.
The companies, including Telefonica, Telecom Italia , Telenor, Telia and A1 Telekom Austria met with EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Monday.
Worries about governments' use of technology to monitor those in quarantine and track infections have intensified in recent weeks over possible privacy violations, with some raising the spectre of state surveillance.