Tracking, tracing, trust: contemplating mitigating the impact of COVID-19 with technological interventions

Should Digital Contact Tracing Technologies be used to Control COVID-19? Perspectives from an Australian Public Deliberation

Mobile phone-based applications (apps) can promote faster targeted actions to control COVID-19. However, digital contact tracing systems raise concerns about data security, system effectiveness, and their potential to normalise privacy-invasive surveillance technologies. In the absence of mandates, public uptake depends on the acceptability and perceived legitimacy of using technologies that log interactions between individuals to build public health capacity. We report on six online deliberative workshops convened in New South Wales to consider the appropriateness of using the COVIDSafe app to enhance Australian contact tracing systems. All groups took the position (by majority) that the protections enacted in the app design and supporting legislation were appropriate. This support is contingent on several system attributes including: the voluntariness of the COVIDSafe app; that the system relies on proximity rather than location tracking; and, that data access is restricted to local public health practitioners undertaking contact tracing. Despite sustained scepticism in media coverage, there was an underlying willingness to trust Australian governing institutions such that in principle acceptance of the new contact tracing technology was easy to obtain. However, tensions between the need to prove system effectiveness through operational transparency and requirements for privacy protections could be limiting public uptake. Our study shows that informed citizens are willing to trade their privacy for common goods such as COVID-19 suppression. But low case numbers and cautionary public discourses can make trustworthiness difficult to establish because some will only do so when it can be demonstrated that the benefits justify the costs to individuals.

Role of COVIDsafe app and control measures in Australia in combating COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

COVID-19 (C19) has been destroying the world's health and emergency response system for almost the past year. Policymakers and health practitioners are trying their best to save the public through various policy development and initiatives in this regard. This study aims to examine the containment measures and their impacts on Australia's C19 situation in Australia's COVIDsafe app background.

Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates the role of the Australian Government's (AG) Health Containment (HC) and Stringency response (SR) in combating the C19 situation in Australia. The time horizon has been taken from January to October 2020 and applied Linear Regression with graphical demonstration analysis by STATA-18 version and MS Word chart features.

Findings

By applying linear regression and graphical demonstration, statistics revealed that AG made various policy developments during the C19 pandemic. However, due to inconsistent and unsustainable measures, the second C19 wave hit Australia much harder than the first wave. COVIDsafe app has been a vital AG in this regard; however, it did not show its progress during the second wave due to privacy issues. After the more focused and aggressive research and development measures, AG overcame the App drawbacks and controlled the situation, demonstrating 92% recovered statistics from C19.

Practical implications

The study concludes that AG should enforce many prudent policy measures and distinct E-government features in the COVIDsafe app and make it secure so people will use it in probable forthcoming C19 waves.

Originality/value

This study has examined the Government of Australia's containment measures in the background discussion of the COVIDsafe app.

State of the Art in Adoption of Contact Tracing Apps and Recommendations Regarding Privacy Protection and Public Health: Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

During the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing apps have received a lot of public attention. The ongoing debate highlights the challenges of the adoption of data-driven innovation. We reflect on how to ensure an appropriate level of protection of individual data and how to maximize public health benefits that can be derived from the collected data.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to analyze available COVID-19 contact tracing apps and verify to what extent public health interests and data privacy standards can be fulfilled simultaneously in the process of the adoption of digital health technologies.

METHODS

A systematic review of PubMed and MEDLINE databases, as well as grey literature, was performed to identify available contact tracing apps. Two checklists were developed to evaluate (1) the apps' compliance with data privacy standards and (2) their fulfillment of public health interests. Based on both checklists, a scorecard with a selected set of minimum requirements was created with the goal of estimating whether the balance between the objective of data privacy and public health interests can be achieved in order to ensure the broad adoption of digital technologies.

RESULTS

Overall, 21 contact tracing apps were reviewed. In total, 11 criteria were defined to assess the usefulness of each digital technology for public health interests. The most frequently installed features related to contact alerting and governmental accountability. The least frequently installed feature was the availability of a system of medical or organizational support. Only 1 app out of 21 (5%) provided a threshold for the population coverage needed for the digital solution to be effective. In total, 12 criteria were used to assess the compliance of contact tracing apps with data privacy regulations. Explicit user consent, voluntary use, and anonymization techniques were among the most frequently fulfilled criteria. The least often implemented criteria were provisions of information about personal data breaches and data gathered from children. The balance between standards of data protection and public health benefits was achieved best by the COVIDSafe app and worst by the Alipay Health Code app.

CONCLUSIONS

Contact tracing apps with high levels of compliance with standards of data privacy tend to fulfill public health interests to a limited extent. Simultaneously, digital technologies with a lower level of data privacy protection allow for the collection of more data. Overall, this review shows that a consistent number of apps appear to comply with standards of data privacy, while their usefulness from a public health perspective can still be maximized.

China health technology and stringency containment measures during COVID-19 pandemic: A discussion of first and second wave of COVID-19

This short communication highlights the Chinese health and stringency containment measures in the background of technology deployment and development during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. By achieving the study objective, this communication takes Health Containment Index and Stringency Response Index as independent variables and COVID-19 new confirmed cases as the dependent variable in the period January to October 2020. Applying simple linear regression analysis and china's technological revolution shows that china's 5G technology in the containment policies and medical support played a vital role in combat the first wave of COVID-19. These measures have remained sustainable and consistent, which made China resumption the economy and state development affairs. Furthermore, the second wave of COVID-19 was also under control due to sustainable policy enforcement during the first wave. In strengthening the health system and e-government system, China's 6G successful invention will make china's institutional structure to the next level and sustainable in combating future calamities and projected forthcoming waves of COVID-19.