Since Canada launched a COVID-19 contact tracing app in July, there have been concerns surrounding whether the privacy of users of such apps is being violated.
Now, computer scientists at Western University have developed a new digital tool that can assess the privacy and effectiveness of the multiple contact tracing apps currently on the market. The tool will make it easier for federal and provincial politicians and public health officials to decide which apps are best for protecting citizens against COVID-19.
"We have observed several technology-based innovations to enhance and augment public health efforts for contact tracing, including digital proximity detection, online dashboards and mobile health apps,” Anwar Haque, Western computer science professor and cybersecurity expert, said in a statement. “Our analytical tool automates the assessment of a number of privacy preservation features and assigns a score to how well the app can secure the personal data of its users.”
Anwar Haque. Photo courtesy of Western University.
Contact tracing has traditionally been a manual process that involves interviewing infected individuals to identify people they have come in contact with. Identifying and isolating close contacts of those infected with infectious diseases like COVID-19 can break the chain of human-to-human transmission. However, the manual process can be too slow to stop rapid spread, making automated notifications of close contact more appealing.
It is hoped the new Western-developed evaluation tool by Haque and Western research associate Rashed Nekvi will help to ease growing concern over the privacy of contact tracing apps. The digital tool gives each app a privacy score by comparing its features against the standard principles taken from the federal privacy laws of Canada and the internationally agreed-upon privacy guidelines from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
"Our analytical tool automates the assessment of a number of privacy preservation features and assigns a score to how well the app can secure the personal data of its users,” said Haque. "People are far less likely to voluntarily download a contact tracing app on their phone due to fears of surveillance. However, the wide adoption of a contact tracing app by the world’s population is necessary to have a meaningful impact in the fight against COVID-19."
Canada launched the COVID ALERT app in July. Since then it has been downloaded only 4.7 million times, meaning only approximately 12 per cent of Canada’s population has adopted the technology.
“This new tool could play a crucial role not only in supporting the national policymakers as they select the right contact tracing apps to employ but also in increasing the population’s confidence in those apps as it relates to privacy and effectiveness,” said Tamer Mohamed, business development manager at WORLDiscoveries, a technology transfer and business development partnership of Western, Robarts Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute.
“If used properly, this new evaluation tool should elevate contact tracing app usage in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19.”
