Contact Tracing Application Research Articles

Improving the Privacy-Preserving of Covid-19 Bluetooth-Based Contact Tracing Applications Against Tracking Attacks

Bluetooth is an essential wireless standard for short-distance and low-power wireless networks. Health departments’ contact-tracing applications depended on Bluetooth technology to prevent infectious diseases from spreading, especially COVID-19. The security threats of the Bluetooth-based contact-tracing applications increased because an adversary can use them as surveillance tools that violate the user’s privacy and revealpersonal information. The Bluetooth standard mainly depends on the device address in its authenticated pairing mechanism (Secure Simple Pairing), which can collect with off-the-shelf hardware and software and leads to a tracking attack. To avoid the risk of tracking based on this security vulnerability in the Bluetooth protocol, we suggest a novel authentication protocol based on a noninteractive zero-knowledge scheme to substitute the authentication protocol used in the Bluetooth standard. The new protocol can replace the authentication protocol in the Bluetooth stack without any modification in the device pairing flow. Finally, we prove the security of our proposed scheme against the man-in-themiddle attack and tracking attack. A performance comparison with the authentication algorithm in the BLE standard shows that our method mitigates the tracking attack with low communication messages. Our results help enhance the contact-tracing application’s security in which Bluetooth access is available.

PLATFORMISATION AND HUMAN RIGHTS: DOES USE OF THE SLOVENIAN #OSTANIZDRAV APP BYPASS PRIVACY RIGHTS?

Abstract. The article aims to explore the public’s fear of data being misused when using European Covid-19 contact-tracing applications. The point of departure lies in considering the research question of whether the Covid-19 pandemic has influenced the platformisation of traditional institutions, i.e., whether the design of Europe’s proximity-tracing applications mimic the dataintensive web services of commercial platforms, namely commercial APIs and their data policies, in order to bypass the right to privacy. We accordingly argue that is vital to address the public’s fears of governmental and corporate dataveillance as well as data misuse while using such apps. The investigation entails of a critical analysis of the Exposure Notification System framework designed by Apple and Google (or GAEN) and the #OstaniZdrav application. The article rejects the justification of the public’s fear of governmental dataveillance, while recognising the possibility of corporate data misuse. Keywords: Covid-19 contact-tracing application, right to privacy, GDPR, API, protocol, metadata, dataveillance

COVID-19 vaccine willingness and hesitancy among residents in Qatar: a quantitative analysis based on machine learning

ABSTRACT The spread of the COVID-19 virus has brought forward a global pandemic that has halted many businesses and placed restrictions on daily activities. Vaccination of residents is crucial for a small country like Qatar to contain the spread of the virus. This study will aim to investigate and report the general outlook of Qatari residents toward the vaccine, the points of hesitancies, and how the contact tracing application (Ehteraz) can play a role in promoting vaccination. A questionnaire survey was given, and respondents answered a series of background questions and questions related to vaccine hesitancy and the effectiveness of the Ehteraz application. A broad search strategy was used to identify the main contributors to willingness and hesitancy with the COVID-19 vaccination. Regression models and test-train machine learning techniques were used for analysis. The results showed that dominance analysis was effective in highlighting the main barriers and promoters in taking the vaccine and that respondent’s characteristics can be used to predict vaccination attitude.

Digital contact-tracing in France: uptake by COVID-19 risk factor and by exposure risk.

Few studies have investigated the influence of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on digital contact-tracing adoption and the differentiated uptake of digital contact-tracing by COVID-19 risk factor and by exposure risk. Using a cross-sectional survey conducted in France in November 2020 (N=1042), we investigate the factors associated with the use of the French 'TousAntiCovid' contact-tracing application. Our independent variables of interest include COVID-19 and 'TousAntiCovid' perceptions, trust in the government, time and risk preferences and the level of adherence to COVID-19 conspiracy theories. We conduct regression analyses by COVID-19 risk factor and exposure groups. Among the full sample, a negative association is found between the propensity to believe in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the use of 'TousAntiCovid'. French respondents at risk of severe COVID-19 form are more likely to use 'TousAntiCovid'. No difference in uptake is found by exposure group. Group analyses indicate that the factors associated with the uptake of digital contact-tracing differ by COVID-19 risk factor and exposure risk. Governmental communication to fight COVID-19 misinformation and to stress out the utility and data safety of 'TousAntiCovid' should be reinforced. Targeted communication campaigns should be conducted among low adoption groups and key groups in COVID-19 transmission.

COVID-19 Countermeasures and Passengers’ Confidence of Urban Rail Travel in Bangkok

Rail transit systems around the world have been suffering from heavily reduced ridership due to reduced capacity for social distancing and passengers’ concern over the risk of COVID-19 infection. Various countermeasures were implemented to reduce the COVID-19 risk so that passengers felt safe to travel on rail. The objectives of this study were to evaluate COVID-19 countermeasures of Bangkok’s urban rail from passengers’ viewpoints and examine its influence on passenger’s confidence. The background of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand and the rail countermeasures implemented in Bangkok were summarized. The data were obtained from an interview survey of 1105 railway passengers conducted at the stations during the second wave of the pandemic. Factor analyses and structural equation modeling were conducted. The results revealed that social distancing was not satisfied by the passengers but adversely caused inconvenience and increased infection risk when the station or rail were congested. On the other hand, the passenger temperature check, face mask enforcement, and hand sanitization countermeasures were found to highly and positively contribute to passengers’ confidence. Contact tracing application was also found to raise awareness and confidence. The findings provided insights for rail authorities and related agencies to effectively implement the countermeasures that would be practically and financially sustainable.

Integration of multiple geospatial applications and intelligence for responding to COVID-19 in Ghana.

We describe the use of integrated geospatial applications for the provision of access to timely and accurate data on samples, visualisation of Spatio-temporal patterns of cases and effective communication between field sample collectors, testing laboratories, Regional Health directors and Government Decision Makers. This study describes how an integrated geospatial platform based on case location and intelligence was developed and used for effective COVID-19 response during the initial stages of COVID-19 in Ghana. Collector for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Survey123. successful development and deployment of integrated geospatial applications and analytics. The Collector for ArcGIS app was customised to collect COVID-19 positive cases location information. Survey 123 was introduced as a COVID-19 contact tracing application to digitise the case-based forms and provide real-time results from the laboratories to GHS and other stakeholders. The laboratory backend allowed the testing laboratories access to specific information about each patient (sample) collected by the fieldworkers. The regional supervisors' backend web application provided accessing test results for confidentiality and timely communication of results. Geospatial platforms were successfully established in Ghana to provide timely results to Regional Health Directors and Government decision-makers. This helped to improve the timeliness of response and contact tracing at the district level. The development and deployment of the application, COVID-19 pandemic response and writing workshop by the Ghana Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (GFELTP) was supported with funding from President Malaria Initiative - CDC, and Korea International Cooperation Agency (on CDC CoAg 6NU2GGH001876) through AFENET and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Results for Development (R4D).

COVID-19 Tracking Applications: A Human-Centric Analysis

The year 2020 will always be remembered with the imprints left by COVID-19 on our lives. While the pandemic has had many undesirable effects for the whole world, one of its biggest side effects has been the fast digital transformation that has taken place, which was already in progress with the Industry 4.0 era. The readily available technology and wireless communications infrastructures paved the way for a myriad of digital technologies for the containment of the disease using mobile contact tracing applications developed by health authority organizations in many countries. The mounting privacy concerns especially with Bluetooth-enabled proximity tracing and centralized tracking technologies used by these applications have given rise to the development of new privacy-preserving contact tracing protocols. Although these new protocols have alleviated the privacy concerns of citizens to a certain extent, widespread adoption is still far from being the reality. In this paper, we analyze existing contact tracing technologies from a human-centric standpoint by focusing on their privacy implications. We present our comprehensive dataset consisting of the contact tracing application usage information in 94 countries and provide results of a multinational survey we have conducted on the sentiments of people regarding contact tracing applications. The survey results demonstrate that privacy concerns are still the leading deterrent for people when deciding whether to use these applications. Nevertheless, it is a globally accepted argument that the most effective and fastest method for contact tracking will be digital technologies free from human errors and manual procedures. Accordingly, it is concluded that a policy of developing decentralized tracking solutions based entirely on user privacy should be followed, in which independent trusted third parties assume the role of authority in the system architecture, if absolutely necessary, in order to effectively combat the pandemic worldwide. An important feature of the systems to be developed to pave the way for widespread use is to provide the users the right to be forgotten.

Survey on usage and concerns of a COVID-19 contact tracing application in Japan

ObjectivesWe aimed to identify the concerns, current implementation status and correct usage, and factors inhibiting implementation and correct use of a COVID-19 contact tracing application among the ordinary citizens in Japan. Study designThis was a cross-sectional study based on an internet survey completed by 2013 participants who were selected among registrants of an Internet research company between September 8 and 13, 2020. MethodsParticipants completed an online survey that included thoughts and concerns about the application, status of use, and questions about whether the application was being used correctly. We performed multiple logistic regression analysis to clarify the association between the use of the app and sociodemographic factors and user concerns. ResultsOf the 2013 respondents, 429 (21.3%) participants reported using this application, but only 60.8% of them used it correctly. The percentage of those having some concerns about the application ranged from 45.9% to 75.5%, with the highest percentage being ‘doubts about effectiveness of apps for preventing spread of infection’. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed, the main concerns inhibiting application use were insufficient knowledge of how to use it, privacy concerns, doubts about the effectiveness of the app, and concerns about battery consumption and communication costs. Additionally, the prevalence of the application was lower for lower-income individuals. ConclusionsThe findings suggest that income may create inequalities in the efficacy and effectiveness of COVID-19 contact tracing applications. Awareness activity strategies to dispel such concerns and support low-income individuals may be needed.

A Survey on Security and Privacy Issues in Contact Tracing Application of Covid-19.

In response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Government and public health authorities around the world are developing contact tracing apps as a way to trace and slow the unfold of the virus. There is major divergence among nations, however, between a “privacy-first” approach that protects citizens’ information at the price of very restricted access for public health authorities and a “data-first” approach that stores massive amounts of knowledge that, whereas of immeasurable price to epidemiologists. Contact tracing apps work by gathering information from people who have tested positive for the virus and so locating and notifying individuals with whom those people are in shut contact, oftentimes by use of GPS, Bluetooth, or wireless technology. All of the user’s information is employed and picked up, the study found that users’ information would be created anonymous, encrypted, secured, and can be transmitted on-line and stored solely in an aggregated format. Contact tracing apps use either a centralized or a decentralized approach to work the user’s information. Apps that use a centralized approach have high privacy risks. In this paper, the researcher’s contributions related to the security and privacy of Contact tracing apps have been discussed and, later research gaps have been identified with proposed solutions.

The Rise of the Big Data Doctor: Recent Advances and Warnings in Digital Public Health Technology

The continuing expansion of social media and big data presents positive opportunities for healthcare research, public health surveillance, and dissemination of health information. However, caution must be used as online data can be harvested and sold without permission from the public. This includes social manipulation, such as the targeting of voters during elections, or pre-determining the likelihood of an individual engaging in high-risk behaviours with associated social, employment, or insurance consequences. The first independent COVID-19 contact tracing application (app) in the UK was unsuccessful. Subsequently, the UK Government has sought to develop apps with the help of large technology firms. These companies generate profit through surveillance capitalism - the mining of human digital activity for profit. Although large technology companies may have the resources available to assist with public health endeavours, their primary obligation to the shareholder should not be overlooked. This narrative review explores recent positive advances in the use of data derived from social media. It also highlights concerns about the potential to abuse this technology for outcomes that are not in the best interests of our patients or general population.

Sociodemographic determinants of the adoption of a contact tracing application during the COVID-19 epidemic in Delhi, India

BackgroundThe Aarogya Setu (ASA) is an open-source Indian smartphone application for contact tracing developed by the government of India. ObjectiveTo determine the sociodemographic determinants of the use of the ASA among participants of two consecutive rounds of a state-wide seroepidemiological study. MethodsWe analyzed secondary data of participants aged ≥16 years from the dataset of a repeated cross-sectional serosurvey conducted during August-September 2020 in Delhi, India. The participants reported on whether they had installed the ASA which was subsequently verified by assessing the app status on their mobile phones’. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. ResultsThe Aarogya Setu application (ASA) was currently installed by 7437 (58.3%, 95% C.I. 57.4, 59.1, missing = 533) and 7,997 (55.6%, 95% C.I. 54.8, 56.4, missing = 566) participants during August and September, respectively. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 37.5 (14.6) years including 47.4% males and 52.6% females. The lack of a smartphone was reported by 17.3% of participants. On binary logistic regression analysis, the absence of ASA installation was independently associated with age≥40, female gender, lesser years of education, and lower per capita income. ConclusionsHigh acceptability of the Aarogya Setu contact tracing mobile phone application was observed in the residents of Delhi. Furthermore, the barriers in utilization of the associated technology were predominantly explained by the socioeconomic, educational and digital divide.

Underweighting of rare events in social interactions and its implications to the design of voluntary health applications

AbstractResearch on small repeated decisions from experience suggests that people often behave as if they underweight rare events and choose the options that are frequently better. In a pandemic, this tendency implies complacency and reckless behavior. Furthermore, behavioral contagion exacerbates this problem. In two pre-registered experiments (Ntotal= 312), we validate these predictions and highlight a potential solution. Groups of participants played a repeated game in one of two versions. In the basic version, people clearly preferred the dangerous reckless behavior that was better most of the time over the safer responsible behavior. In the augmented version, we gave participants an additional alternative abstracting the use of an application that frequently saves time but can sometimes have high costs. This alternative was stochastically dominated by the responsible choice option and was thus normatively irrelevant to the decision participants made. Nevertheless, most participants chose the new (“irrelevant”) alternative, providing the first clear demonstration of underweighting of rare events in fully described social games. We discuss public policies that can make the responsible use of health applications better most of the time, thus helping them get traction despite being voluntary. In one field demonstration of this idea amid the COVID-19 pandemic, usage rates of a contact tracing application among nursing home employees more than tripled when using the app also started saving them a little time each day, and the high usage rates sustained over at least four weeks.

Information Safety Assurances Increase Intentions to Use COVID-19 Contact Tracing Applications, Regardless of Autonomy-Supportive or Controlling Message Framing.

Promoting the use of contact tracing technology will be an important step in global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Across two studies, we assessed two messaging strategies as motivators of intended contact tracing uptake. In one sample of 1117 Australian adults and one sample of 888 American adults, we examined autonomy-supportive and controlling message framing and the presence or absence of information safety as predictors of intended contact tracing application uptake, using an online randomized 2 × 2 experimental design. The results suggested that the provision of data safety assurances may be key in affecting people’s intentions to use contact tracing technology, an effect we found in both samples regardless of whether messages were framed as autonomy-supportive or controlling. Those in high information safety conditions consistently reported higher intended uptake and more positive perceptions of the application than those in low information safety conditions. In Study 2, we also found that perceptions of government legitimacy related positively to intended application uptake, as did political affiliation. In sum, individuals appeared more willing to assent to authority regarding contact tracing insofar as their data safety can be assured. Yet, public messaging strategies alone may be insufficient to initiate intentions to change behavior, even in these unprecedented circumstances.

A Person-to-Person and Person-to-Place COVID-19 Contact Tracing System Based on OGC IndoorGML

With the wide availability of low-cost proximity sensors, a large body of research focuses on digital person-to-person contact tracing applications that use proximity sensors. In most contact tracing applications, the impact of SARS-CoV-2 spread through touching contaminated surfaces in enclosed places is overlooked. This study is focused on tracing human contact within indoor places using the open OGC IndoorGML standard. This paper proposes a graph-based data model that considers the semantics of indoor locations, time, and users’ contexts in a hierarchical structure. The functionality of the proposed data model is evaluated for a COVID-19 contact tracing application with scalable system architecture. Indoor trajectory preprocessing is enabled by spatial topology to detect and remove semantically invalid real-world trajectory points. Results show that 91.18% percent of semantically invalid indoor trajectory data points are filtered out. Moreover, indoor trajectory data analysis is innovatively empowered by semantic user contexts (e.g., disinfecting activities) extracted from user profiles. In an enhanced contact tracing scenario, considering the disinfecting activities and sequential order of visiting common places outperformed contact tracing results by filtering out unnecessary potential contacts by 44.98 percent. However, the average execution time of person-to-place contact tracing is increased by 58.3%.

Attitudes and opinions on quarantine and support for a contact-tracing application in France during the COVID-19 outbreak

ObjectivesWe aim to identify the factors associated with support and compliance with general quarantine and with the acceptability and potential use of a contact-tracing mobile phone application among French respondents. Study designWe conducted a cross-sectional study between April 16th and May 7th 2020 using online questionnaires. MethodsThe sample was reweighted to be representative of the French population by age and sex, region and education level. Ordered logistic, logistic and negative binomial regressions were used to estimate the factors associated with quarantine support, with the opinion on quarantine extension, with the number and type of trips outside the quarantine home and with the acceptability and potential use of a contact-tracing application. ResultsAfter reweighting, full data for regression analyses were available for 1849 respondents. Attitudes and opinions regarding quarantine are correlated with the perceived COVID-19 threat, the perceived benefits of quarantine, trust in the government, well-being during quarantine and risk preferences. Trust in the government, perceived individual health consequences in case of COVID-19 infection and time preferences are associated with the willingness to use a contact-tracing application. ConclusionsOur analysis indicates that prevention campaigns that stress the individual risk in case of infection or the benefits of quarantine could foster compliance to quarantine protocols. Remote psychological support might also promote quarantine adherence among individuals most distressed by the quarantine. Moreover, public communications should focus on restoring trust among the population as trust is strongly correlated with the willingness to use a contact-tracing application.

The design and development of a digital contact tracing application to better facilitate the tracing of passengers in the event of a biological threat/ pandemic

ABSTRACT With increasing air travel, contagion can spread anywhere in the world within 24 hours. As a result, the potential risk of introduction and spread of infectious disease is on the rise. Recently, we the global spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) showed the potential of a contagion to emerge, spread and effect the health, social and economic life of people globally. Contact tracing represents an important factor in mitigating the global spread of a pandemic. This research in progress paper explores the design and development of a ‘contact tracing’ application in relation to airline passengers in the event of a biological threat or pandemic. The current paper-based method of contact tracing has many limitations that can lead to delayed identification of at-risk passengers and ultimately increased the spread of contagion. The use of a digital contact tracing application provides a method of rapidly collecting passenger contact information.

Performance Analysis of Virtual Communication Between Thermal Cameras and Contact-tracing Applications for COVID-19

Late 2019 and a significant part of early 2020 have witnessed the outbreak of Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) across the world. As a desperate attempt to control the virus spread, many countries are enforcing measures to restrict large concentration of people at one place and are implementing some form of contact tracing mobile application to quickly track close interactions between people. Furthermore, as businesses come out of lockdowns, they are required to record the temperature of all visitors and staffs that move in and out of their premises. Some businesses are employing medical grade contactless thermal imaging cameras for scanning temperature. Communication and sharing of information between the contact tracing application and thermal cameras would make an effective tool against COVID-19. However, there is a disconnect between the contact tracing applications and contactless thermal imaging solutions because they employ different communication stacks, platforms, data formats, and protocols. Furthermore, any kind of middleware to mediate between the cameras and the mobile applications would render the solution useless because of the induced latencies. In this paper, we are proposing to virtualize the communication between the cameras and mobile applications so that they could communicate and interoperate over a common protocol stack. We further model and simulate the proposed virtualized communication algorithm, under various topologies and configurations to comprehensively evaluate the performance, scalability, and deployment feasibility. The simulation aptly and efficiently evaluates the results for latency, energy, and bandwidth consumption parameters.

Universal Shelter-in-Place Versus Advanced Automated Contact Tracing and Targeted Isolation: A Case for 21st-Century Technologies for SARS-CoV-2 and Future Pandemics

ObjectiveTo model and compare effect of digital contact tracing versus shelter-in-place on severe acute respiratory syndrome – coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread. MethodsUsing a classical epidemiologic framework and parameters estimated from literature published between February 1, 2020, and May 25, 2020, we modeled two non-pharmacologic interventions — shelter-in-place and digital contact tracing — to curb spread of SARS-CoV-2. For contact tracing, we assumed an advanced automated contact tracing (AACT) application that sends alerts to individuals advising self-isolation based on individual exposure profile. Model parameters included percentage population ordered to shelter-in-place, adoption rate of AACT, and percentage individuals who appropriately follow recommendations. Under influence of these variables, the number of individuals infected, exposed, and isolated were estimated. ResultsWithout any intervention, a high rate of infection (>10 million) with early peak is predicted. Shelter-in-place results in rapid decline in infection rate at the expense of impacting a large population segment. The AACT model achieves reduction in infected and exposed individuals similar to shelter-in-place without impacting a large number of individuals. For example, a 50% AACT adoption rate mimics a shelter-in-place order for 40% of the population and results in a greater than 90% decrease in peak number of infections. However, as compared to shelter-in-place, with AACT significantly fewer individuals would be isolated. ConclusionWide adoption of digital contact tracing can mitigate infection spread similar to universal shelter-in-place, but with considerably fewer individuals isolated.

The need for privacy with public digital contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic

The need for privacy with public digital contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic

A Review of the Aarogya Setu Digital Contact Tracing Mobile Application of the Government of India in Response to the Novel Corona Virus [COVID-19]: A Local and International Perspective

This paper reviews the Government of India’s initiative to battle the Novel Coronavirus: the release of the ‘Aarogya Setu’ digital contact tracing technology mobile application in an epidemiological context with a purpose to increase awareness of the safety precautions required to stay safe as well as to inform the application users in case they have been in close interaction with a COVID positive patient in the past few days and advises them to take the necessary precautions if needed. The Aarogya Setu application helps to track the rapid cluster and community spread of COVID-19 in India and achieves this by utilising a client-server model-based architecture involving communication from a central government database to users’ devices using GPS and Bluetooth features for data collection and dissemination to devices.Other initiatives of digital contact tracing technologies are reviewed as well, most notably Google and Apple’s provision of an application programming interface to developers worldwide which allows data capture of interactions from users’ devices.Suggestions are given to monitor and improve the security of the application due to possible misuse of users’ data and hacking by cyber criminals. Privacy suggestions have been highlighted as well such as alternatives of removing location tracking via GPS while still providing the benefits of contact tracing by using Bluetooth. Mobile application development issues are suggested such as to allow users to add their personal risk factors such as co-morbidities to get a risk factor scale in their device locally to alert the user of their risk of infection of the novel coronavirus in case they were or have come in contact with people who tested positive while keeping the information private to the user. With the rapid advancements in technology, India has the potential to make their contact tracing application even better on a large scale with enhanced usage and efficacy going forward in the battle against COVID-19.