Contact-tracing apps are important but less effective in a social welfare vacuum: Governments and businesses must help us to help each other
A blog post by Beatriz Botero Alcira
Contact-tracing apps are important but less effective in a social welfare vacuum: Governments and businesses must help us to help each other
A blog post by Beatriz Botero Alcira1)
As some cities and states start to ease lockdown measures, many are also getting ready to deploy contact-tracing applications. These applications intend to warn citizens when they may have been exposed to the virus and,depending on their design, gather information about the progression of the virus. In a nutshell, the main models create a peer-to-peer (P2P) network where users use their smartphones’ Bluetooth technology to anonymously keep track of other phones that they have been close to.
When a user tests positive, she then notifies the network, so that other users can take measures such as seeking a test or self-isolating. These apps, however, remain controversial and their critics raise questions about their efficacy and the risks they themselves pose. Critics of contract-tracing apps claim that (1) the apps won’t give governments the information needed to better understand the virus and take the right measures; (2) much like the pandemic, they will be less effective within vulnerable communities; (3) where adoption rates are low the information they generate will will not be accurate; (4) data collection creates risks of user privacy and data abuses (5) they won’t be effective at replacing government lead programs of contact tracing programs that contact individuals and help them self-isolate.
We agree that an only tech-driven solution is insufficient and yet the spread and particularities of the virus – as demonstrated by the success in certain Asian countries in slowing contagion – do seem to suggest that institutional solutions that use technology to speed up the process of contact tracing are important. The manner in which these apps are deployed and interact with larger institutional and policy strategies, as well as how they are governed and designed, may answer many of the criticisms raised against contact tracing apps.
Thus, for example, not all contact-tracing apps collect the same information, make it available to governments, or are governed by the same kind of rules. The contact-tracing apps discussed in the US and Europe remain voluntary, unlike aggressive contract tracing programs like the one undertaken in South Korea, which did not rely on an app but rather gathered many other data points from credit card transactions, CCTV footage and GPS data.
Decentralized models like the one proposed by Google and Apple, and which may soon be adopted by Germany and Switzerland, are not intended to give governments any personally identifiable information and are designed to protect individual privacy. These apps resemble more collaborative and voluntary networks where individuals can participate to help their communities and themselves keep track of the virus.
France and the UK, however, seem to favour a model that does centralize some of the data to give health authorities a better sense of how the contagion is evolving. The more access a government has to this data, the better it can integrate this information to its overall reaction to the pandemic. At the same time, it is of utmost importance that there are rules in place about what kinds of data are being collected and for how long the data can be stored, and how it can be used and by whom.
In any of these scenarios individuals are expected to participate in collective contact tracing efforts and check if they need to get tested or be careful. For this to work, however, institutions and social support programs that enhance individual trust on the apps and on the overall response to the pandemic will be crucial.
As said, in more centralized systems clear data-governance rules are important, but in general, transparency about how apps work and the kinds of information they collect and store to reassure people that their data is safe and secured and their privacy is protected must be in place. Equally important will be whether users are going to feel comfortable self-isolating if flagged by the app, which is why apps adoption must be integrated in broader institutional responses.
Indeed, many of the critics of these apps raise concerns over the false information that would be generated if adoption rates are low, which would also tend to happen in communities where individuals have, for example, limited access to smartphones and mobile data networks, or don’t live in conditions that allow them to self-isolate. We see this kind of pattern in Singapore, which is now experiencing a second wave of the coronavirus, because local officials underestimated the vulnerability of migrant workers.
Sweden, on the other hand, included in its financial relief package that the central government will assume the full cost for sick leave of companies during April and May, thus creating the incentives for people to stay at home—and curb the spread of the virus – if they think they need to. On the contrary, some US workers fear that if they stay at home – even if they are sick or have symptoms – they might lose their jobs. Rather than a reason to reject deployment of contact-tracing, however, this shows that measures must be in place to ensure people have “quarantine paid leave,” such as unemployment benefits and assurances that they won’t lose their jobs while they are sick, and that governments will help people to self-isolate safely if they need to.
In sum, contact-tracing apps will not be a panacea and should definitely not replace many other needed policies and programs that aim to slow the contagion rate. It is important to make healthcare accessible and expand its capacity, including making testing with short turnaround times widely available – otherwise there won’t be sufficient quality information to populate the systems enabled by the apps.
But these apps could still help slow the spread of the disease, especially in communities where self-isolating is possible. As there is no quick resolution to this pandemic in sight, all small steps in the right direction are important. Those who can join the collaborative network enabled by P2P digital contact-tracing apps perhaps should.
Finally, governments (and the businesses that can) should create the conditions to enable sick or at-risk individuals to stay at home and self-isolate, without worrying about putting themselves and their families in financial risk because of missed paychecks or lost jobs.
- See also Beatriz Botero’s Paper dated 22 April 2020: