How Far Should Big Tech Go to Track COVID-19?

As states slowly start to reopen their economies and personal interactions increase, a strategy known as contact tracing will be essential to prevent further outbreaks. This strategy identifies, warns, and monitors the health of people who have been in contact with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases. Given the rapid and far-reaching spread of the coronavirus, digital contact tracing will play a big role.

Enter Google and Apple

In a joint effort, Google and Apple are building a “privacy-preserving” exposure notification system that uses Bluetooth signals to track contact between people who might spread the infection.

According to MIT Technology Review, “The idea is simple: since Bluetooth is constantly scanning for other devices, your phone can use wireless signals to see who you’ve been near. Somebody who gets a positive diagnosis can tell [a contact-tracing app], which will inform everyone else who has been in proximity to alert them about risks of possible transmission.”

Google and Apple say that users can opt-in and that no personally identifiable information (PII) or location data would go to the companies. In fact, the companies recently banned the use of location tracking in apps that use their system. Other guidelines include:

• Only official public health authorities can use the apps and then only for responding to COVID-19.
• Users who test positive for COVID-19 must consent before their diagnosis is shared with the public health authority operating the app.
• The apps should only require the minimum amount of information necessary for exposure notification, and only for the purpose of COVID-19 response.
• Apps cannot access or even ask for permission to access a device’s Location Services, which provides geolocation data.

Privacy, Technical Challenges Abound

Cambridge computer science professor Ross Anderson told Business Insider the privacy concern “is a bit of a red herring,” and the more important issue is whether or not such contact tracing software will work. For example, Bluetooth can’t distinguish between cases where people were very close to those in which people were 15 or more feet away. This could lead to a high rate of false positives.

Experts at the Brookings Institute worry both about privacy and the effectiveness of digital contact tracing. They write: “We have serious doubts that voluntary, anonymous contact tracing through smartphone apps—as Apple, Google, and faculty at a number of academic institutions all propose—can free Americans of the terrible choice between staying home or risking exposure. We worry that contact-tracing apps will serve as vehicles for abuse and disinformation, while providing a false sense of security to justify reopening local and national economies well before it is safe to do so.”

As distancing measures ease and the shadow of the pandemic lifts, contact tracing will be part of our “new normal.” The role of technology in the effort to prevent or minimize future outbreaks will continue to evolve. However that plays out, we must ensure our personal privacy does not become another COVID-19 casualty.

Stay tuned to our blog for the latest on legislation, technology, and all things data privacy.