Is Contact Tracing App A key to your Privacy?

What if you had a code that could access every detail of your life, your phone, your house, even your bank account?

Would you go around sharing that code with everyone you know? 

I don’t think so. People are pretty defensive when it comes to sharing personal details because privacy unlocks their life. But what if your own Government uses these small details against you? You would never want that, trust me. According to the words of famous American Whistleblower Edward Snowden, "No matter who you are, every day of your life you are sitting in a Database just ready to be looked at."

To know how data can really be misused let us talk about some real-world examples.

✓ In India, Cambridge Analytica had been used by Indian National Congress to carryout in-depth electorate analysis and influence voters in the 2010 elections by exposing data of about 562,455 users.

✓ Back in 2016, state auditors in the state of Minnesota found that between 2013 and 2015 some police officers in departments across the state misused their access to personal data in the state driver’s license database to look up informationon family, friends and others without authorization or relevance to any official investigation.

  

✓  Some employees at international call centers of the telecommunications companyAT&T illegally disclosed personal information of about 280,000 customers and sold it to third parties who used the information to unlock mobile phoneson other networks.

✓ In 2018, it was found that Cambridge Analytica improperly used personal information of over 50 million Facebook users while working on Donald Trump’spresidential campaign which influenced the election results in Trump’s favor.

These are just a few incidents I came across; the internet is full of such cases.

In the current scenario of Covid-19 wrecking havoc, a lot of countries have thought of a technical way of tracking down the patients- by the use of contact tracing app. Contact tracing helps prevent the spread of virus by proactively finding people at higher risk than others due to potential exposure. It is not a new concept as it has been done in some form or the other, mainly by asking people about the places they have been to and the people they have met over previous few weeks in order to determine the source of the infection and possibly to stop the spread of infection to other people. However, the memory of a person is volatile and tracing cannot be completely relied on the recalling power of a person. And in the era where technology can do wonders, who cares about such a small problem? Thus the technology came with a modernized solution- using digital records of a person to track his movements and interactions.

 Sounds scary, right?

A contact tracing app works through Bluetooth signals that your phone transmits and receives very often. Users who download the app to their phone need to feed some information. The app runs in the background of the phone and on coming in contact with other phones within the range, the phones exchange a code via Bluetooth. If you come across someone who is infected, it will send you alerts.

 When it comes to privacy, there has been some real debate about this. “Is the app open source?” “If not, what happens?” “If yes, what happens?” “Is the app centralized or decentralized?”

Some apps like those under Switzerland and Germany have a Decentralized Design which means that the data remains on the phone of the user. Some find it advantageous as it is less vulnerable to hacking or exploitation of data. Other apps including Australia’s COVIDSafe, India’s AarogyaSetu app and UK National Health Service’s app have a Centralized Design which means the data will be stored on a government server and it will be accordingly analyzed to perform contact matching. Privacy experts have claimed that centralized approach might result in leakage of sensitive details of the users.

In an interview with Indian Express newspaper former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna said that it was utterly illegal to make people use the app. Nikhil Pahwa, editor of internet watchdog Medianama said that India has a terrible history of protecting privacy, referring to Aadhar- the most controversial biometrics based identity database. He said, “Any app that tracks who you have been in contact with and your location at all times is a clear violation of privacy.”

To the relief of privacy and security experts, India released the source code of AarogyaSetu on 27^th of May, 2020, thus making it ‘open-source’. Being open-source, it ensures that the application does not misuse data. Also, it brings the source code to the innovating minds which can help build right standards and more accurate technical specifications for the app. But still, is the data safe? Can it not be used maliciously against the people? 

And the most important question, 

“What will happen to the data after the end of Covid-19 crisis?” Nothing in this age of advancements is truly anonymous and the data can be used to invade one’s privacy. Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say.

Even if we ignore the data misuse and threat, there is a question that still remains unanswered. Is the app reliable? Study suggests that the virus can be slowed down if about 60% of the population uses them. Signal strength can vary according to the situation. Also what if someone downloads the app and provides false data? You will never know if you came across someone like that. Apps obviously exclude anyone who doesn’t own a smart-phone like older people and migrants- the ones who are the most at risk.

But that does not change the fact that contact tracing is really beneficial (only if it used effectively) as watching over the contacts of an infected person will help these contacts get immediate care and treatment and will prevent further transmission of the virus.

Surely we are at risk, but all we can do is Fight for Data Privacy and Support Freedom of Information.

What do you , think about the CONTACT TRACING APP , are they still necessary ?

Yes

No

Maybe

Can't say

Poll By Clinic Captain