The article “Contact Tracing Mobile Apps for COVID-19: Privacy Considerations and Related Trade-offs” (2020) was written by Hyunghoon Cho, Daphne Ippolito, and Yun William Yu. The article discusses how contact tracing is done during this corona virus pandemic, the privacy issues that are being encountered, and the how they can be countered. First of all, the authors assert that contact tracing is a necessary tool during this crisis and employing technology in this process is one of the best ways to achieve this goal. Secondly, they point out that while mobile apps are essential in achieving this goal of contact tracing, they are also violating the privacy of those suspected to have corona virus and those infected with the virus. Lastly, the authors assert that focusing on the effects of a contact tracing app by ensuring that the app highly guarantees privacy would help the app get the support of the people and be effective in contact tracing during this corona virus pandemic. The main aim of this paper is to summarize the authors’ views and provide my position on the issue.
I strongly agree with the authors that contact tracing is very important during this COVID-19 pandemic and it is the major method that the government, healthcare providers, and local communities are using to stop the spread of the virus. In most scenarios, highly effective contact tracing and case isolation is enough to control a new outbreak of COVID-19 (Hellewell et al., 2020). Employing technology for faster contact is even more effective considering how fast the spread is taking place. However, while doing contact tracing, should we violate privacy? Should we assume that controlling the virus is the most important thing and not protecting people’s information?
First of all, the issue of privacy during contact tracing depends on how the mobile apps are designed and used. For instance, in South Korea where the government has a public database of the patients including their private information, it is easy for tech companies to access that information and any other person associated with those companies. This means a serious intrusion of privacy. So, who should sacrifice or take responsibility? Is it the patient because they got sick? Is it the government because they need to help stop the spread? or is it the companies who had the chance to access the information? This raises even more complexities amidst such a serious crisis. In my opinion, I think all methods including polling-based solutions and mobile apps have privacy risks as there is nothing technology cannot do. Even additional mixing servers and private messaging systems which the authors propose are risky. According to Berger et al. (2020), at this time honest and transparent communication is very important and if this private messaging is used in the wrong way, it could create public mistrust that could affect the whole process.
I would propose that technology be applied in this process but in a very cautious manner. We may fight corona virus by any means now but we start crying in the future over misuse of personal information. Any app to be used in contact tracing must guarantee a high level of privacy, otherwise it could be ineffective.
Conclusion
My article gives my opinion on contact tracing and privacy during this corona virus pandemic. The important thing is that we need to control corona virus, but the question remains, are we doing it the right way? Getting the answer to this question will help us solve both problems at the same time. I believe even if we are handling a serious problem, a person’s privacy is something important to observe.
References
Berger, Z. D., Evans, N. G., Phelan, A. L., & Silverman, R. D. (2020). Covid-19: control measures must be equitable and inclusive.
Cho, H., Ippolito, D., & Yu, Y. W. (2020). Contact tracing mobile apps for COVID-19: Privacy considerations and related trade-offs. arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.11511.
Hellewell, J., Abbott, S., Gimma, A., Bosse, N. I., Jarvis, C. I., Russell, T. W., ... & Flasche, S. (2020). Feasibility of controlling COVID-19 outbreaks by isolation of cases and contacts. The Lancet Global Health.
zezezeze
Example.docx
0
