Can Coronavirus tracing app allay privacy concerns?

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Nicky Godding

The implementation of an app that traces Coronavirus contacts is necessary but must overcome “perceived Big Brother elements” to ensure the public get on board, a new report from Swindon-based BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT has found.

The proposed NHS contact tracing app will alert smartphone users if they are in - or have been - in close contact to someone who has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The Chartered Institute for IT has published its new policy position paper drawing on its members’ experience, which backs the technology, alongside extensive testing and a strong communications campaign to increase public confidence in the technical and ethical aspects of the app.

Kathy Farndon, Vice President, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT said: “The biggest threat to the success of the contact-tracing app is that perceived ‘Big Brother’ elements of the implementation, for example the use of a centralised database, may have a negative effect on uptake from the public and minimise the chance of reaching the 60 per cent uptake implementation target. BCS considers that a sustained campaign to increase public confidence in IT, supported by assurances of real safeguards, open and ethical data governance and protection by design is fundamental.

“Contact tracing apps must be founded on ‘privacy by design, privacy by default’ principles and Government must set a high bar for transparent and ethical data governance as its future legitimacy and trust with public data is at stake.”

She continued: “It is vital that the impacts of a contact tracing app - as part of the UK’s response to COVID-19 - are considered in terms of the key challenges it presents such as data protection, privacy, public trust and civil liberties.”

BCS makes several recommendations that the government, public health authorities and developers should consider when developing contact-tracing apps including:

Facilitate mass levels of COVID-19 testing to work in tandem with the contact tracing app, “you cannot ‘big data’ your way out of a ‘no data’ situation”
Engage and work strategically across the UK’s devolved administrations, with civil society to develop and implement a wide-ranging, inclusive communication programme regarding app installation and use, including guidelines on what is needed for maximum compliance and how the public can appropriately seek recourse
Ensure minimum interference with people’s personal ‘data’ lives and that data isn’t sold or shared beyond its intended stated purpose

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.