Tech workers and companies around the world are joining hands to alleviate the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis in various ways. Telco companies are playing their part too by offering free internet and reliefs on bill payment. I subscribed to Spectrum Internet plan in the pandemic because it was cheaper. It is evident that companies are tirelessly working to develop products for combating the virus, tracking those who could be infected, predicting its spread, and protecting organizations including health care from potential cyberattacks.
In California, the officials wanted to see how closely people are following the social distancing guidelines. They were able to tap a powerful data set. It was a map provided by Facebook derived from the location coordinates of 10s of millions of smartphones.
The map showed that a large number of people are gathering in public parks as well as beaches, which is quite alarming. A global wave of experimentation involving data sets is considered personal and sensitive. It involves revealing how people users their smartphones, whom they talk to, and other information. We will get back to this later on the blog.
How Are Smartphones Helping?
Smartphones are a foundation of data. Just so you know, telephone companies know a lot about you. They track smartphone users by tracking the cell tower the consumer is communicating through, the type of smartphone and software in use, and so on. They also collect user info, including the GPS coordinates.
Most smartphones can also register how close they are to devices such as wireless headphones and Bluetooth radios. All this information is useful to the public health officials who wish to track the movement of people in regions with the most Coronavirus cases. South Korea is already using smartphone location data for reconstructing the movements of the people infected by the virus and sending alerts to the residents nearby who could possibly be affected. Hong Kong has used geofencing to make sure people who have contracted the virus are in quarantines. The ones who violate the rule have faced fines and jail time.
Singapore is also on the bandwagon of harnessing Bluetooth technology for identifying newly infected patients by seeing whether the infected people have been within 6 feet of healthy people for a long time. Approaches like these are becoming widespread in Europe. Decentralized privacy-preserving proximity tracing is a system designed by researchers that Germany and some others are planning to adopt. Authorities in the UK are developing a contact-tracking app that will send a color-coded warning about people. Yellow alerts are for people with unverified self-diagnosis, whereas red alerts for infections confirmed by the medical authorities.
Some countries have gone farther in using local data to police the social interactions of people and take rigorous steps wards combating the spread of the virus. The names include Thailand, Taiwan, and New Zealand. They have been using phone location tracking for monitoring the movements of the quarantined people. The ones who violated the orders were fined heavily. Health officials in China, Russia, and Poland have used facial recognition software for confirming individuals have obeyed the lockdown orders.
The Use of Data Sets and Privacy Concerns
This type of experimentation has been less aggressive in the United States. The country right now is relying on sets of anonymous user data, which have been provided by companies voluntarily. California’s decision of limiting individual access to beaches and parks was drawn based on data gathered from Facebook as well as Google.
Engineers
A team of engineers and investors in Colorado used smartphone data for determining traffic in various areas. To avoid triggering privacy backlash, they have worked with data sets containing PII.
Privacy advocates have cautioned that the rush to come up with a solution to contain the spread of the virus may be outrunning the public understanding of how their data is collected and use. They have also warned that the apps and services developed to fight the virus might someday be used by the government authorities for monitoring political activities or even crimes. In the wake of privacy concerns like these, most tech tools that are being deployed in the US rely on anonymized data.
Officials in other countries (Asia and Europe) have gone farther in harnessing smartphone data for identifying infected people. They are also warning others who might be at the same. Many individuals in Israel have received text messages from the officials of public health to alert them that their smartphone location records are being collected. And that they have been around an infected person so they must isolate themselves for 14 days.
Conclusion
This means our smartphones are capable of so much more rather than texting. Dialing the Spectrum phone number, or performing online activities.
Old-fashioned health approaches such as manual tracing of infected people. And widespread testing may remain the most effective methods for controlling the pandemic. However, if they are coupled with tracking via smartphones and other mobile technologies. It could help us in this war against Coronavirus (COVID-19).
