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269Privacy,
Ethics, and Contact-Tracing Apps
interoperability.5 Apps are adopted by specific national or regional
governments. As restrictions lift and people begin once again to
cross borders, interoperability of different apps across jurisdictions
becomes important.6
Centralized vs Decentralized Data Storage
Apple and Google have sought to address both privacy and interoper-
ability by collaborating on an exposure notification system that could
be used as a foundation for Bluetooth-enabled contact-tracing apps.7
With input from privacy scholars and advocates,8 this system was
designed for decentralized data storage. A decentralized data storage
approach keeps information about contacts stored locally on a user’s
phone, rather than automatically uploading it to a central database.9
A person who tests positive for COVID-19 can enable public health
authorities to notify significant contacts without actually identifying
them.
Some governments were unwilling to adopt a fully decentral-
ized contact-tracing app, preferring a centralized model in which
data about users and/or contacts is stored on a central server acces-
sible to public authorities. Centralized data solutions have the benefit
of allowing governments (or app developers) to access de-identified
data about proximity and infection that might be useful in modelling
and analytics to better understand the disease and its spread. Some
governments have sought a compromise solution that allows for
decentralized storage of contact data only up until the point of a user’s
5. Leila Abboud, Joe Miller & Javier Espinoza, “How Europe Splintered over
Contact Tracing Apps”, Financial Times (10 May 2020), online: <www.ft.com/
content/7416269b-0477-4a29-815d-7e4ee8100c10>.
6. Teresa Scassa, “One App per Province? How Canada’s Federalism Complicates
Digital Contact Tracing”, Heinrich Böll Stiftung (13 May 2020), online: <us.boell.
org/en/2020/05/13/one-app-province-how-canadas-federalism-complicates-digi-
tal-contact-tracing>.
7. Apple/Google, “Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing” (last visited 11 May 2020),
online: <www.apple.com/covid19/contacttracing/>; Andy Greenberg, “Google
and Apple Reveal How Covid-19 Alert Apps Might Look”, Wired (4 May 2020),
online: <www.wired.com/story/apple-google-covid-19-contact-tracing-interface/>.
8. DP-3T, “Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing—Documents”,
GitHub (last visited 11 May 2020), online: <github.com/DP-3T/documents>.
9. Carmela Troncoso et al, “Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing—
White Paper” (12 April 2020), online (pdf): <github.com/DP-3T/documents/blob/
master/DP3T%20White%20Paper.pdf>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Title
- VULNERABLE
- Subtitle
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Authors
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Publisher
- Ottawa Press
- Date
- 2020
- Language
- English
- License
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Size
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Pages
- 648
- Categories
- Coronavirus
- International