Contact Tracing Privacy

The cluster discusses privacy-preserving contact tracing apps for COVID-19, highlighting implementations like Apple/Google's Bluetooth API using temporary IDs and local processing, while debating their effectiveness against privacy-invasive alternatives.

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Keywords

US techcrunch.com net.au www.abc NOVID ncase.me MM bit.ly internetinnovation.org gov.sg tracing contact app location infected apple google bluetooth data apple privacy

Sample Comments

aembleton Apr 19, 2020 View on HN

Why isn't this data used then for contact tracing?

panarky Apr 12, 2020 View on HN

Not a dupe. This article explains in detail how the contact tracing API can work while preserving privacy.Random identifiers not linked to you or your device, identifiers change every 10 minutes so third parties can't track you over time, processing locally on the device instead of by Apple or Google or the government, etc.

eloisius Aug 17, 2021 View on HN

Impossible and fruitless? Contact tracing has been quite effective in Taiwan unless I’ve been completely fooled by propaganda. And contact tracing apps don’t require you to accept general location tracking. They anonymously exchange temporary tokens and, when you report yourself as a positive case, the tokens you’ve used in the past two weeks get uploaded to a central authority so that anyone who has received them can see that they represent contact with an infected person.

RandallBrown Apr 10, 2020 View on HN

This doesn't appear to be a way for the government or tech companies to track people. Looking through the API docs I think it's designed just to alert people who may have been exposed.It lets someone identify as Covid-19 positive and then if people have come into contact with them, you can be alerted. Most of the processing happens on device and it doesn't use location data.It looks like it would be very hard to abuse by governments or businesses, but I'm not an

cjbprime Mar 23, 2020 View on HN

You can do contact tracing without location surveillance: https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/asia-pacific/singapore-g...

mappu Apr 15, 2020 View on HN

Contact tracing does not need to be a privacy invasion - the Apple/Google implementation seems very well thought out.https://ncase.me/contact-tracing

mrob Apr 27, 2020 View on HN

As the Apple/Google system shows, it's possible to do contact tracing without sacrificing privacy. The blame is entirely with the UK government, not anybody who takes the reasonable step of refusing to support unnecessarily harmful technology.

randoramax Jan 6, 2021 View on HN

Check the European standards for covid-19 tracing apps: those don't collect any personal data.

alphabettsy Mar 23, 2024 View on HN

This works similar to Covid contact tracing except limited to known contacts. Seems harmless, though it shouldn’t be on by default.

bradfa Apr 10, 2020 View on HN

Google and Apple are now doing a version of this: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/10/apple-and-google-are-launc...