In a previous post use of COVID-19 smartphone phone apps to track the COVID-19 spread was highlighted. In Minnesota, SafeDistance COVID-19 tracking app is developed by the HealthPartners Institute and researchers at the University of Minnesota for similar use. According to the Star Tribune reporting, Target and the Minnesota Safety Council are also developing a health tracking app for businesses which be could used to monitor their employee for any occurrence of COVID-19.

The main purpose of such smartphone apps is to monitor movement of peoples that that tested covid-19 positive, notify others who are around the infected individuals, and restrict the movement of infected people.

If the virus’s path can be tracked, even predicted, the hope is that more people will be able to resume at least part of their normal routines — and fewer will need to confine themselves at home.

From The New York Times

According to the the New York Times reporting, smartphone apps like COVID-19 trackers use GPS and Bluetooth technologies, to collect and share the data, thus making them agile and easy to use but also make them easy target for hackers or government surveillance.

Tracing Apps & Data Privacy

Although reported use of similar COVID-19 tracking apps to map the spread of the virus in several dozen countries including Singapore, India, Australia, China & South Korea, use of virus tracking apps has met skeptic population in the Western counties including US & European union. In the US about six COVID-19 tracking apps are in use. They include COVID-19 Apple / Google App, CovidSafe from Microsoft & the University of Washington, How We Feel from Pinterest, SafePaths from MIT, Covid Watch, CoEpi and NOVID.

Because of frequently reported of data breach, and mass surveillance of our daily lives privacy concerned individuals are skeptic of voluntarily participating in such program. Successful tracking & containing the spread of COVID-19 through such tracking apps depends upon widespread testing for the virus and enormous numbers of voluntary participants.

The New York Times writes, ‘a key to making the apps successful, proponents said, is persuading people that the apps will help keep them safe and allow them to emerge from lockdowns’.

RELATED RESOURCES

• A Scramble for Virus Apps That Do No Harm | The New York Times

Cover photo source: Screenshot from the New York Times article.