COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Eight Privacy Questions Explored

TL;DR

This paper critically examines privacy concerns in COVID-19 contact tracing, analyzing proposed protocols through game theory to balance utility and privacy risks.

Contribution

It introduces an analytical framework using game theory to evaluate privacy protocols in contact tracing apps, addressing eight key privacy questions.

Findings

Game-theoretic analysis of privacy protocols

Evaluation of protocols against eight privacy questions

Insights into optimal privacy-preserving contact tracing strategies

Abstract

We respond to a recent short paper by de Motjoye et el. on privacy issues with Covid-19 tracking. Their paper, which we discuss here, is structured around three "toy protocols" for the design of an app which can maximise the utility of contact tracing information while minimising the more general risk to privacy. On this basis, the paper proceeds to introduce eight questions against which they should be assessed. The questions raised and the protocols proposed effectively amount to the creation of a game with different categories of players able to make different moves. It is therefore possible to analyse the model in terms of optimal game design.