Contact Tracing

With restrictions lifting across the country, many businesses that had been working from home are returning to their premises and with so many people leaving their homes once again, contact tracing is the hot topic right now.

There are already apps released that can do this, with more flooding the market I’ve the next few weeks. Australia has the COVIDSafe app with many other countries and international governments releasing their own versions for contact tracing to address the rapid cross contamination rate of the COVID-19 virus. Cyprus had an app released as early as February for COVID-19 contact tracing.

There’s one thing about contact tracing apps though that is causing divided opinions, the data collection.

Where is the data stored?

How secure is my data?

What will my data be used for?

With the release of these apps and some governments making the code open source to build trust with those installing it, it opens the way for more contact tracing apps to be made for other uses, like marketing purposes. There have been discussions around whether businesses should be allowed to use these apps to collect data for marketing and promotion purposes.

Considering many businesses have been hit hard over the last few months, should their customers accept and allow being traced and targeted for marketing through these types of apps?

Google and Apple banded together to create their Exposure Notification API to assist in the development of contact tracing apps and as their devices make up about 40% of the world populations mobile phone usage. That makes it a lot easier for Governments and health organisations to make sure they are covering the ground needed to collect data. Use of the API comes with strict restrictions to protect users privacy and ensure it is not being abused as it is currently mandated to only be used for combating COVID-19 exposure. One of it’s key rules is that users must give the app permission before it can transfer any data collected off the phone to the servers.

With anything like this, transparency is key. If you explain to your clients what they are signing up for, what happens to their data, and if you intend to use their data for marketing, explain what kind of marketing you’re intending to do, and how they can opt out at any stage.

What are your thoughts about contact tracing?