Near the start of the pandemic, the contact tracing app was lauded as the technology that would save us all. A few months later, scientists are pretty skeptical of its effectiveness, due to its limited success in select countries. Not to mention that this success was a huge loss for user privacy, which we’ll be discussing shortly.
Until then, click here to find out more about your local contact tracing solution(s) and whether they pose any privacy risk to you. ProPrivacy’s spreadsheet contains info about:
- Whether the app tracks your location (an obvious breach of privacy when Bluetooth and similar tech works just as well).
- What data it collects about you (if any), where it’s stored, and whether anyone but you can access it.
Every country seems to have a different approach, so there’s no “one-size-fits-all” answer to our main question. We’ll go into more details below and let you decide whether a contact tracing app is a good idea.
The Privacy Factor
As mentioned, digital contact tracing worked well in certain areas. For example, Immediate Response Teams used the data gathered from its app to keep South Korea out of lockdown. Of course, the app’s location tracking was so intrusive that its notification system exposed extramarital affairs and other private, embarrassing facts about Covid-19 patients.
Privacy advocates agree that Bluetooth (or Bluetooth Low Energy, specifically) is the way forward because:
- There is no location tracking involved, and location data isn’t necessary for digital contact tracing (or “exposure notification systems” as they’re sometimes called).
- The apps don’t gather any other personal data (aside from a random, anonymized identifier that is changed every few minutes and deleted from user devices every couple of weeks).
However, there are disagreements between academics on whether Bluetooth contact tracing apps should follow a centralized or decentralized model. In other words, whether those randomized identifiers should be sent to a centralized system for notification purposes.
PEPP-PT in particular has come under fire for advocating centralization, even though their protocol is supposedly “privacy preserving.” Their lack of any published source code or other technological data about their protocol doesn’t help their case either. Privacy advocates find this lack of transparency worrying.
Is Your Contact Tracing App Safe?
It’s no secret that these apps have been rushed out due to how fast the pandemic has spread. As such, many of them are still plagued by security issues. One of the more serious flaws could allow hackers to hijack the NHS app’s notification system and send out false infection warnings. Even Bluetooth-based apps are at risk, with man-in-the-middle attacks posing the biggest threat.
Do note that these apps are still a work in progress, so some of these security holes could be patched in the meantime.
The Bottom Line
Looking at all the variables here, whether you use a contact tracing app or not comes down to your preference:
- Are you more concerned about the privacy and security issues discussed above? See how your local app scores on the ProPrivacy website – anything above a 7 should be safe enough.
- Worried about your health and keeping up with all the anti-Covid measures? Then using a contact tracing app should offer you some peace of mind – especially if your country has a high app adoption rate.
The German government – whose contact tracing app was downloaded by over 20% of the population – assured that they would use every tool at their disposal to fight the pandemic. Incidentally, their “Corona-Warn-App” scored an 8 on ProPrivacy’s website. This shows a decent level of care for user privacy – in line with the country’s strict privacy laws.
That’s pretty much the mindset governments need to have, as digital contact tracing was never meant to replace traditional methods. Nor should it become a new form of surveillance after the pandemic is over.
