ISSUE389|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JULY
DON’TWENEEDAMEDICALCUREFORTHIS?
As it stands, there’s no vaccine,nocure,and no antiviral
medicine to tackle Covid-19.The only seemingly effective
waytofight coronavirus is social distancing to keep people
apart, and in some cases quarantine lockdowns, preventing
people from leaving their homes unless it’s essential.
However,technology could be another waytohelp tackle
the virus. And that comes in the form of contacttracing.
HOWDOESTHATWORK?
Basically,it’s the means to track people who have contracted
Covid-19 and those who might have come in contact with
them, and thus help inform them to isolate. The idea is to
proactively target people who are most at risk from the virus
and advise them to quarantine if needed.
This is potentially one waytoavoid keeping anation
under full lockdown. By quarantining those who mayhave
been exposed to the virus, it allows others who have not
been exposed to it to go about their daily business.
Contact tracing has been used in the past, but it relies on people to
understand theyhavecontracted adisease,and to be clear about who
theymay have come in contact with and report that accurately to
clinicians. That relies on people being transparent, remembering where
theyhavebeen, and who theymay have seen;with adeadlyvirus
spreading globally,such asituation could be pretty stressful.
This is where technology could help.
WHATTECHNOLOGY?
Smartphones have GPS capabilities and the ability to track one’s
movements, if said person grants the phone and various apps to do
that. Such tech can be used in custom contact-tracing apps to pretty
much automatically collect the movement data of people who may
have been exposed to coronavirus.
Using geolocation technology,thatdata can
then alert users if they’ve been nearbysomeone
whohas tested positive forCovid-19.It’s worth
noting that people need to be willing to opt
intousing the app,atleast at the time of
writing –the government has yet to force
contact tracing on people.
Again, such testing can allow people to go
about their normal lifeasmuch as possible,while also keeping safe, or
at least awayfrom those with Covid-19.Intheory,thiscould effectively
sever the ability of the virus to spread and eventually kill it off.
BUTI’VESEENNOSUCHAPP
That’s because the UK doesn’t have one,thoughit’s working on an
app; by the time you read this, acontact-tracing app from the NHS
might be available,asone is already being tested at aRoyalAir Force
base in North Yorkshire.
Contact-tracing apps have been successfully used in South Korea,
which has been something of aposter child in the use of technology
to ‘flatten the curve’ofthe coronavirus infection rate. The Covid-
Smart Management System (SMS) uses data gathered from 28
organisations to trace the movements of South Koreans, and within
10 minutes can analyse the movements of those who have been
infected by Covid-19.
Google and Apple have also announced theywilljoinforces to
launch an application programming interface to enable governments
to tap intorelevant contact-tracing data that an Android or iOS phone
might collect through Bluetooth connections. It’s up togovernments
across the globe,aswell as medical and technology organisations, to
set up and distributesuch apps.WHATABOUTMYPRIVACY?
That’s atrickyquestion. If acontact-tracing app was to collect personal
data, then it could be seen as an invasion of privacy.
However,the flipsideisthat such automated contact tracing could
save lives, so infringing on privacy might arguably be worth it. And
given some people have already lost some liberties under various
lockdowns, from enjoying apint in the pub to sitting out in the park,
giving up some personal data forthe greater good is arguably aminor
sacrifice in the grand scheme of things.
The NHS’s digital division, NHSX, has said it plans to keep the data
of its users privateand inject adegree of
anonymity intothe harvested data.
One overarching concern is that such apps
don’t allow governments to collect more data
than absolutely needed, and then purges the
data when they’re done with it. Otherwise,when
the coronavirus crisis is finally over,wemay
have ended up surrendering more of ourprivacy
than we realised and enabled governments to use that data formore
than just contact tracing, such as forlaw enforcement.ANYTHINGELSETOWORRYABOUT?
Unfortunately,yes. Forcontact tracing to work effectively,it’s thought
that 80% of smartphone users, or 56% of the general UK population,
needs to use acontact-tracing app.
But there are still people in the UK, especially the elderly,without
smartphones, or who aren’t au fait with accessing new apps, which
creates a‘digital divide’between those who can use acontact-tracing
app and those that effectively fall through the gaps.
Analysts at Counterpoint Research also noted that two billion, or a
quarter of the smartphones in active use,aren’t compatible with the
Bluetooth low-energy chips needed to detect when theyare in close
proximity to other phones.
These are challenges that need to be overcome,and theywillneed
to be tackled quickly if contact tracing is to be effective –and that
might see people surrender some personal privacy to get there.Inthe
meantime,staysafeand wash your hands.Contact-tracing appsHowtechcanhelptacklecoronavirusOneconcern is thatsuch appsdon’t allowgovernments tocollectmoredata than needed