Contact Tracing: Beyond the Apps

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new approach to digital contact tracing that shifts responsibility from individuals to facilities, emphasizing privacy-preserving architecture to improve effectiveness during pandemics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework where facilities are responsible for contact tracing, supported by a privacy-preserving architecture as a prerequisite for reopening.

Findings

Framework shifts contact tracing responsibility to facilities

Proposes privacy-preserving architecture for contact tracing

Supports safer reopening during pandemics

Abstract

As pandemic wide spread results in locking down vital facilities, digital contact tracing is deemed as a key for re-opening. However, current efforts in digital contact tracing, running as mobile apps on users' smartphones, fall short in being effective. This paper lays out the vision and guidelines for the next era of digital contact tracing, where the contact tracing functionality is moved from being personal responsibility to be the responsibility of facilities that users visit daily. A privacy-preserving architecture is proposed, which can be mandated as a prerequisite for any facility to re-open during or after the pandemic.