Page 19 - HOH_Neat

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technology Thursday 7 May 2020
Here come COVID-19 tracing apps - and privacy trade-offs

By MATT O'BRIEN and pitching their apps directly
CHRISTINA LARSON to state and local govern-
Associated Press ments. In Utah, the social
As governments around media company Twenty
the world consider how to sold state officials on an
monitor new coronavirus approach combining Blue-
outbreaks while reopening tooth with satellite-based
their societies, many are GPS signals. That would let
starting to bet on smart- trained health workers help
phone apps to help stanch connect the dots and dis-
the pandemic. cover previously hidden
But their decisions on which clusters of infection.
technologies to use — and "It's unlikely that automat-
how far those allow authori- ed alerts are going to be
ties to peer into private lives enough," said Jared All-
— are highlighting some good, Twenty's chief strat-
uncomfortable trade-offs egy officer and a Utah resi-
between protecting priva- dent, citing estimates that
cy and public health. the peer-to-peer models
"There are conflicting in- would need most people
terests," said Tina White, participating to be effec-
a Stanford University re- tive.
searcher who first intro- North and South Dako-
duced a privacy-protect- ta are pursuing a similar
ing approach in February. model after a local startup
"Governments and public repurposed its existing Bison
health (agencies) want to Tracker app, originally de-
be able to track people" to signed to connect fans of
minimize the spread of CO- North Dakota State Univer-
VID-19, but people are less sity's athletic teams.
likely to download a volun- Regardless of the ap-
tary app if it is intrusive, she proach, none of these
said. The TraceTogether contact tracing app appears on a mobile phone in Singapore on Friday, April apps will be effective at
Containing infectious dis- 24, 2020. breaking chains of viral in-
ease outbreaks boils down Associated Press fections unless countries
to a simple mantra: test, like the U.S. can ramp up
trace and isolate. Today, formation directly available Utah's state epidemiologist. one person using the app coronavirus testing and hire
that means identifying to public health authorities. A competing approach is later confirmed to have more health workers to do
people who test positive In Australia, more than 3 under development by COVID-19, public health manual outreach.
for the novel coronavirus, million people have down- tech giants Apple and authorities can use that Another big limitation:
tracking down others they loaded COVIDSafe, an app Google limits the informa- stored data to identify and many people, particularly
might have infected, and touted by the prime minis- tion collected and anony- notify other people who in vulnerable populations,
preventing further spread ter, who compared it to the mizes what it pulls in so that may have been exposed. don't carry smartphones.
by quarantining everyone ease of applying sunscreen such personalized tracking Apple and Google say that In Singapore, for instance, a
who might be contagious. and said more app down- isn't possible. apps built to their specifica- large migrant worker popu-
That second step requires loads would bring about a Apple and Google have tions will work across most lation lives in cramped
an army of healthcare "more liberated economy pushed for public health iPhones and Android de- dorms, makes about $15 a
workers to question coro- and society." Utah is the agencies to adopt their vices, eliminating compat- day, and powers the city's
navirus carriers about re- first U.S. state to embrace privacy-oriented model, ibility problems. They have previously booming con-
cent contacts so those a similar approach with an offering an app-building also forbidden govern- struction industry — but
people can be tested and app called Healthy Togeth- interface they say will work ments to make their apps smartphone usage in this
potentially isolated. er, developed by a social smoothly on billions of compulsory and are build- group is low. When the
Smartphone apps could media startup previously phones when the software ing in privacy protections Southeast Asian city-state
speed up that process by focused on helping young rolls out sometime in May. to keep stored data out of launched its app Trace-
collecting data about your people hang out with near- Germany and a growing government and corpo- Together in March, total
movements and alerting by friends. number of European coun- rate hands and ease con- confirmed COVID-19 cases
you if you've spent time Both these apps record a tries have aligned with that cerns about surveillance. were well under 1,000. Then
near a confirmed corona- digital trail of the strangers approach, while others, For instance, these apps in early April, a rash of new
virus carrier. The more de- an individual encountered. such as France and the rely on encrypted "peer infections in worker dormi-
tailed that data, the more Utah's goes even further, UK, have argued for more to peer" signals sent from tories pushed that number
it could help regional gov- using a device's location government access to app phone to phone; these to more than 18,000, trig-
ernments identify and con- to help track which restau- data. aren't stored in govern- gering new lockdown poli-
tain emerging disease "hot rants or stores a user has Most coronavirus-tracking ment databases and are cies.
spots." But data collected visited. apps rely on Bluetooth, a designed to conceal indi- "If we can find a way to
by governments can also The app is "a tool to help decades-old short-range vidual identities and con- automate some of the
be abused by govern- jog the memory of the per- wireless technology, to lo- nections. Public-health detective work with tech-
ments — or their private- son who is positive so we cate other phones nearby officials aren't even in the nology, I think that would
sector partners. can more readily identify that are running the same loop; these apps would be a significant help," said
Some countries and local where they've been, who app. notify users directly of their Nadia Abuelezam, a dis-
governments are issuing they've been in contact The Bluetooth apps keep possible exposure and urge ease researcher at Boston
voluntary government-de- with, if they choose to allow a temporary record of the them to get tested. College. "It won't be all we
signed apps that make in- that," said Angela Dunn, signals they encounter. If In the U.S., developers are need."q