Digital Contact Tracing: Large-Scale Geolocation Data as an Alternative to Bluetooth-Based Apps Failure

The currently deployed contact-tracing mobile apps have failed as an efficient solution in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. None of them have managed to attract the number of active users required to achieve efficient operation. This urges the research community to re-open the debate and explor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Electronics (Basel) 2021-05, Vol.10 (9), p.1093
Main Authors: González-Cabañas, José, Cuevas, Ángel, Cuevas, Rubén, Maier, Martin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applications programs
Bluetooth
Contact tracing
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Design
Disease transmission
Efficiency
Mobile computing
Pandemics
Privacy
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Summary:The currently deployed contact-tracing mobile apps have failed as an efficient solution in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. None of them have managed to attract the number of active users required to achieve efficient operation. This urges the research community to re-open the debate and explore new avenues to lead to efficient contact-tracing solutions. In this paper, we contribute to this debate with an alternative contact-tracing solution that leverages the already available geolocation information owned by BigTech companies that have large penetration rates in most of the countries adopting contact-tracing mobile apps. Our solution provides sufficient privacy guarantees to protect the identity of infected users as well as to preclude Health Authorities from obtaining the contact graph from individuals.
ISSN:2079-9292
2079-9292
DOI:10.3390/electronics10091093