Do we need a Contact Tracing App?

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the effectiveness of COVID-19 contact tracing apps, concluding that current scientific evidence does not support their benefit in slowing virus spread and suggesting reconsideration of their use.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of contact tracing technology and assesses the scientific evidence for its effectiveness in controlling COVID-19, highlighting the lack of conclusive proof.

Findings

No scientific evidence supports the effectiveness of contact tracing apps.

Current Bluetooth-based proximity detection technologies lack proven impact.

Reconsideration of privacy-invasive contact tracing measures is recommended.

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to shed some light on the usefulness of a contact tracing smartphone app for the containment of the COVID-19 pandemic. We review the basics of contact tracing during the spread of a virus, we contextualize the numbers to the case of COVID-19 and we analyse the state of the art for proximity detection using Bluetooth Low Energy. Our contribution is to assess if there is scientific evidence of the benefit of a contact tracing app in slowing down the spread of the virus using present technologies. Our conclusion is that such evidence is lacking, and we should re-think the introduction of such a privacy-invasive measure.