An introduction to the technology of contact tracing and its usefulness for public health, considering questions of efficacy, equity, and privacy.
How do you stop a pandemic before a vaccine arrives? Contact tracing is key, the first step in a process that has proven effective: trace, test, isolate, and treat. Smartphones can collect some of the information required by contact tracers-not just where you've been but also who's been near you. Can we repurpose the tracking technology that we carry with us-devices with GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and social media connectivity-to serve public health in a pandemic? In People Count, cybersecurity expert Susan Landau looks at some of the apps developed for contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that issues of effectiveness and equity intersect.
Landau explains the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of a range of technological interventions, including dongles in Singapore that collect proximity information; India's...