![]() Governments can quickly send ‘at risk’ alerts to any devices that were in a defined area – such as a shopping centre – in the same timeframe as an app user who has since logged themselves as infected, along with advice to get tested or self-isolate. For Covid-19, they can be used in tandem with contact-tracing apps to overcome their limitations, by reaching a greater proportion of the population beyond the userbase. Combined with contact tracing this is an effective solution for preventing a second wave.Įven more pertinent as countries begin to plot a path back to a more normal life through a phased lift of lockdown is that an effective, proven and tested ability for location-based alerts already exists in the form of public warning systems.Ĭountries are already using these systems, Norway and Iceland among them. These can calculate the number and nationality of mobile devices in a specific location (without collecting personally identifiable information) and send alerts to those devices. While the debate rages, there is another way to tackle the issue – through public warning systems. Another major issue with phone-based apps is that they require a significant percentage of the population – 80% according to Oxford University – to download them for it to be useful. This takes place on users’ phones, hence a ‘decentralised’ approach, but other approaches, where the data is held centrally by authorities come with greater privacy concerns and are described as ‘centralised’.ĭecentralised apps are reassuring in terms of the privacy they offer users, but there is no way for governments to assess who has been alerted, unless users tell them, so compliance rates with protection measures are unknown. There are a number of contact-tracing apps in development that aim to track and log social interactions via Bluetooth and automatically alert users if someone recently in their proximity tags themselves as infected. However, there are two ways to approach this – by downloading and using contact-tracing apps, or through public warning systems using existing telecoms infrastructure to mass message those at risk. Mobiles with trackable locations are the obvious way to glean this contact-tracing data. Contact tracing apps: Centralised vs decentralised
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