Do you remember the variety of contact tracing apps launched a year ago? Download the app and keep Bluetooth on. One fine morning you may get an alert saying a passenger (complete stranger) in your bus has tested positive. Could you go into self-isolation for ten days please?
India’s Aarogya Setu (Health Bridge), with 50 million
downloads in the first two weeks, became the world’s fastest growing app,
beating Pokemon Go.
In April 2020, Google and Apple, the two giants – competitors
– improbably came together to develop an app. Their systems run 99% of the
world’s software.
The vision or dream was that the elderly and
vulnerable stay at home, everyone else goes about business as usual. Only those
getting an alert go into isolation. Modern technology would keep the economy and
businesses running. Except the people in isolation or quarantine, life would be
normal.
The vision turned out to be a fantasy.
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Bluetooth was capable of producing a huge number of
false alerts. GPS-enabled smartphones are accurate up to a 16 feet radius under
the open sky. But the social distancing guideline was six feet. You could end
up in isolation thanks to a person waiting at the bus stop on the opposite side
of the road.
One challenge for the apps was that they must run 24x7
to be effective. The battery started running out rapidly, some android
manufacturers shut down the apps to save battery life.
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Google/Apple mechanism made certain improvements. A
log entry was added to the phone, only if the two smartphones were in proximity
for at least five minutes.
The software relied on the Bluetooth signals to
estimate the distance without needing to know people’s locations (a privacy
concern). And rotating IDs were used, instead of real names. They called it “exposure
notification” rather than “contact tracing”, which was more intimidating.
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Strangely, no country attempted to run trials. Just
like medicines and vaccines, a covid app is a health related product.
The software privacy features meant no studies could
be conducted to check if alerts really helped reduce virus transmissions. Researchers
need names of people to talk to, not rotating ID numbers.
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South Korea treated contact tracing as a detective
job. They combined the app with CCTV footage, credit card records, GPS data
from the cars and phones. South Koreans’ smartphones vibrated when a new case
was discovered in the district. The apps detailed the hour-by-hour,
minute-by-minute timeline of infected people’s travel. Which buses they took,
where did they get on and off, whether they were wearing masks.
South Koreans ordered into self-quarantine had to
download another app. That app showed if the person violated the quarantine.
The fine was $2500, payable online.
Alipay, a Chinese app generated a QR code in three
colours. A green code on your smartphone meant you could move freely. A yellow
code must stay at home for seven days. Red meant a two-week quarantine. (See
clip above: passengers must show green code on smartphones before boarding an
underground train).
Relative success in South Korea and China could be
attributed to large scale; rapid testing, quick results without which contact
tracing is not effective. More importantly, South Koreans were voluntarily willing
to sacrifice their privacy. In China, privacy concerns didn’t cross anybody’s
mind.
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It is not known to what extent the apps helped China
crush the coronavirus. If they did, people living in constitutional democracies
may feel angry about the inability and unwillingness of their States to enforce
the measures, and the citizens to accept them. In the USA, UK, Europe and India,
hundreds of thousands of lives may have been lost because privacy and freedom
are more valued than unproven apps that allow the governments to get greater
control over our lives.
Yes, freedom always comes at a price. And usually the
price you pay for it is permanent. Once freedom is taken away, it is rarely
given back.
Is it worth losing lives for concerns over privacy and
government controls? In my view, it is. Because life itself is not life without
freedom.
Ravi