Strengthening Privacy Protections in COVID-19 Mobile Phone–Enhanced Surveillance Programs

Abstract

ublic health officials worldwide are struggling to manage the lethal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As part of the response, governments, technology companies, and research organizations are leveraging emerging datacollection and data-analysis capabilities to understand the disease and model and track its spread through communities. Facilitated by a trove of technology-based data sourcesin particular, the data generated from the widespread use of mobile phones-these public health surveillance programs could prove especially valuable for preventing successive waves of infections as quarantine orders are relaxed and economies reopen.

Solutions to Big Data Privacy and Security Challenges Associated With COVID-19 Surveillance Systems

“…RAND Corporation researchers also have developed a concise, standardised, and transparent privacy scorecard that would help health officials understand and evaluate the privacy implications of mobile surveillance programs ( Boudreaux, et al, 2020 ). Also, the availability of a wide range of mobile surveillance programs capable of monitoring COVID-19 had been their intention to have a standardised approach.…”

“…Also, the availability of a wide range of mobile surveillance programs capable of monitoring COVID-19 had been their intention to have a standardised approach. The RAND wanted public health agencies to be able to compare the efficacy and usability of such programs as well as the inclusion of privacy protection means in different programs that will help make decisions appropriate to intervention selection ( Boudreaux, et al, 2020 ). For example, Australia’s COVIDSafe contact tracing program fulfilled 16 of the 20 scorecard criteria and partially did two others; but in contrast, South Korea’s contact tracing program fully or partially met only six and failed in nine; the remaining five were either unclear or not applicable ( Boudreaux, et al, 2020 ).…”

Withdrawn

“…Contact tracing mobile apps are used by public health authorities to augment traditional epidemiological interventions, such as by using technology-based data collection (e.g., automated signaling and record-keeping on mobile phone apps) (Boudreaux et al, 2020) to determine the chain of contacts of an infected person to identify them and get them to self-isolate or undergo institutional quarantine. (Ross, 2021) Effective contact tracing allows public health authorities to break the chains of transmission and shift policy to case-based interventions such as selective individual quarantines rather than population-wide interventions such as social distancing.…”

“…Zhang, 2021) Privacy protections guard individuals against wrongful government repression, especially that which is targeted against marginalized people (e.g., religious or ethnic minorities), against harms that stem from identity theft, fraud, extortion, and other criminal activities, and against the risk of reputational, economic, or social harms that might arise if personal practices or beliefs are made public. (Boudreaux et al, 2020) Ever since COVID-19 was first reported and later declared a pandemic, human life has changed in many respects, including conventional physical business transactions/interactions. The use of emeeting technology became more prevalent to the extent that physical board meetings, classroom teaching, shopping, and family meetings, to mention but a few, are now done mainly online.…”