Digital contact tracing will fail to succeed unless governments create and use the technology in a way that respects user privacy, says a group of experts in a joint letter. If health organizations and their respective governments build an app in which superfluous data is gathered from users, they will struggle to win the trust of their citizens, who are already wary of data gathering policies.
The joint letter is signed by academics from 26 countries across the globe. It highlights the potential of contact tracing apps to prevent the recurrence of COVID-19 as countries are starting to recover. On the other hand, the letter also warns that such apps should not violate the right to privacy of many users.
"It is vital that, in coming out of the current crisis, we do not create a tool that enables large-scale data collection on the population, either now or at a later time," the letter states. "Thus, solutions which allow reconstructing invasive information about the population should be rejected without further discussion."
Several countries are already using contact tracing apps or have a design already in the pipeline, including Australia, Singapore, the UK, and some countries in Europe. Meanwhile, Israel already has a monitoring system in place since March.
Digital contact tracing will be most effective if a majority of the population willingly shares their data to their local government, which will provide authorities a list of people users came in close contact with in the past 14 days. However, not all people are willing to risk their privacy in light of reports indicating misuse of personal data by tech companies. Giving access to one's personal information is a huge concern, particularly about how data is being handled and by whom.
Google and Apple, both having nearly 100 percent of the worldwide mobile phone market, promised they're building in safeguards to protect their users' privacy. Contact logs stored on the phone won't contain personally identifying information: If you're notified, you'll know you've been in contact with someone sick, but you won't know who. And to prevent you from being tracked, no matter where you are in the world, the randomly generated unique identifier your phone broadcasts will be automatically changed every 15 minutes.
Both Apple and Google said that only public health officials will have access to user data and that the contact-tracing system will be shit down after the pandemic. The companies are hoping that this is enough to convince skeptics to trust and use contact-tracing apps.
