Smartphones, Bluetooth, apps and geolocation are some of the ways that people with COVID-19 can be traced. Find out what technologies are in place to make this happen.
Countries, states, and public health organizations around the world are digitizing contact tracing to speed up the manual and time-intensive method of tracking the spread of COVID-19. There are several ways to modernize the process ranging from using Bluetooth signals to track proximity to using apps to create a record of a person’s travels through a community. Geolocation is another way to monitor movement and interactions with other people.
Google and Apple announced at the start of April that they would first develop an API for contact tracing and then incorporate a tracing method in the phone operating systems. The companies just released an early version of the coronavirus exposure notification API to a limited group of developers working on behalf of public health authorities globally.
PwC is beta testing Check-In, the first enterprise-grade contact tracing system that could be added to existing corporate apps. This solution would only track employees at work, not an individual’s movements outside of the office.
The key to success for any new contact tracing system will be wide scale adoption. Companies and governments will have to address privacy concerns as well.
Myke Lyons, the CISO at data intelligence company Collibra, said this effort is an opportunity for Google and Apple to build trust with consumers.
“There is a lot of misinformation and distrust around data, and consumers need to know how their data is being used, where it came from, how it is being secured, and what will happen once the data is no longer needed,” he said.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found in a recent poll of 1,202 Americans that opinions are split over digital contact tracing. Fifty percent of respondents said they would download an app to notify them when they come into close contact with an infected person but 47% wouldn’t.
Here are three approaches to contact tracing and the pros and cons of each.
Using Bluetooth and smartphones for contact tracing
The appeal of using mobile phones for contact tracing is scale. A solution that is available to everyone with a cell phone would have a much wider reach, which is vital for contact tracing to succeed. The initial apps from Apple and Google will be available for users to download via their respective app stores.
Next Apple and Google will build a Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform into the phone operating systems. This approach would remove the requirement to download an app to participate and potentially reach even more people, as long as they opt-in.
SEE: Coronavirus: Critical IT policies and tools every business needs (TechRepublic Premium)
Apple explained that the proximity identifier changes every 15 minutes, would not have any personally identifiable information attached to it, and requires the necessary key to be traced back to the user. These identifiers are processed on the device and not in the cloud. Each user chooses whether to contribute to the contact tracing. Those diagnosed with COVID-19 must give their consent before sharing the data with the server.
A user’s contact trace list consists of unique IDs collected via Bluetooth from other phones. If a person tests positive for the virus, he or she would share this list with the health authorities for contact tracing purposes, not a list of names and phone numbers.