Needham-Based Tripadvisor Launches New Social Distancing Platform

NEEDHAM, MA — Tripadvisor announced on Friday that it would launch a new platform called Crowdfree to help users social distance.

The coronavirus pandemic hit the travel industry especially hard and companies like Tripadvisor, based in Needham, are trying to get creative in the ways they use their platform. The platform uses "anonymized and aggregated 'crowd data" accoriding to the company, to track when businesses and public places have peak crowd hours and when there are less people and space to safely social distance.

The platform shows users a map where they can toggle between viewing buildings and viewing public spaces through heat maps that let them know how populated the area is. The company highlighted that "past performance does not guarantee future results" so users should still use caution when heading to a location that is marked less crowded as crowds could have formed in the meantime.

On tracking and personal data, Tripadvisor wrote:

"We do not store any personally identifyable data about you. We do not collect registration information, and only track your anoymous activity on the site in order to improve it. We only show density data in commercial and public spaces, not in residential areas."