CoVista: A Unified View on Privacy Sensitive Mobile Contact Tracing Effort

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified approach, CoVista, that balances privacy preservation with the needs of public health authorities for effective contact tracing during COVID-19, addressing limitations of existing exposure notification systems.

Contribution

The paper proposes two novel ideas, lighthouse and covid-commons, to enhance contact tracing capabilities while maintaining privacy in mobile exposure notification protocols.

Findings

Lighthouse and covid-commons improve contact tracing effectiveness.

The approach preserves user privacy while providing key public health data.

The methods are compatible with existing exposure notification systems.

Abstract

Governments around the world have become increasingly frustrated with tech giants dictating public health policy. The software created by Apple and Google enables individuals to track their own potential exposure through collated exposure notifications. However, the same software prohibits location tracking, denying key information needed by public health officials for robust contract tracing. This information is needed to treat and isolate COVID-19 positive people, identify transmission hotspots, and protect against continued spread of infection. In this article, we present two simple ideas: the lighthouse and the covid-commons that address the needs of public health authorities while preserving the privacy-sensitive goals of the Apple and google exposure notification protocols.