Pandemics or Contact Tracing?

Contact Tracing? A new term is emerging timidly, both at the table of the internet giants and at that of the lovers of the theories that may be hiding behind it. I am personally against any conspiracy theory, unless it is proven, then it ceases to be a theory. We now have the ability to verify anything that is said, within minutes in fact.

Ο algorithm it is relatively simple, they call it "internet" and now we have it in our pocket! As long as we have a draft source that we trust, we can refer to it and immediately form an opinion about something specific!

And immediately a problem arises! Which source is considered trusted? This is now everyone's personal and many factors play a role in what each of us considers "trustworthy" and what is not. Personally, I would like to complete one more question. Do we all need to know everything? This has to do with our species and it has been answered many times by Yuval Noah Harari, so I refer you there. In ours now!

What is Contact Tracing?

Its translation is "Contact Tracing" and it emerged in the middle (still in progress) of the latest global event, which is none other than that of the new coronavirus pandemic.

What is the idea of ​​the project?

The project is based on the protection of citizens (currently from the new coronavirus) notifying each user through an application, if someone with whom he came in contact in the previous days has been diagnosed positive in the virus, then the app will notify you what to do the test. Only this, without further information.

Contact tracing

Who is involved in the project?

In terms of hardware, both Apple and Google are involved in the project and I think it is the part that we need to look at a little more. Below I will list two sequence diagrams.

What is a sequence diagram?

In short, a sequence diagram is one of the many ways (UML) used by a software engineer, or team of software architects, to tell an application's operators how they interact over time and what messages they exchange. We do not need to know anything more about this information.

In the juice

Contact Tracing: The whole project has to do with the use of bluetooth in mobile phones . As we all know there has always been a bluetooth connection problem between an IOS device and an Android. For this particular project, Apple and Google decided to configure a function of bluetooth, low resource consumption so that its use does not drain the battery, so that the devices can communicate with each other. The idea of ​​how the devices will communicate, what information they will exchange, where this information will be stored, what encryption will be in place and all of that, can be seen in the diagrams below.

How are contacts stored?

The framework generates personal encrypted user codes for each device, which change every few seconds, but are only stored in the memory of our device. At that date and time you had that code.

Contact tracing

As shown in the diagram above, all devices that come into contact with each other store this encrypted user code locally, neither in Apple or Google databases, nor in government databases, nor anywhere. Only on our device. But, if someone sees our user password and there is a case to follow us through it, this will be done for a few seconds because then it will change automatically.

Notice that we came in contact with a positive case

In my opinion, the most important thing is whether the framework will communicate with the internet. According to the diagram below no, all data will be stored locally, ie on our device. The only communication he will have with the network (shown as Cloud in the diagram) is for the user to enter a key, which will be reasonably provided by the health authorities when he is diagnosed positive in the virus test.

Contact tracing

As soon as someone receives the special key that is positive for the virus and enters it into the application, then and only then does the device refer to those users who came in contact and notify them that some of their contact was found to be positive for the virus and should to do the test. In no case do not leak personal user data, because they simply have not been disclosed to any app. The only notice will be that we have to do the test.

Why is bluetooth used for this project?

Because there is more accuracy in direct contact, which is how the virus spreads. If GPS were used for this project, with the accuracy it has, imagine what would happen when there were 100 people in an apartment building. He would say that everything came in contact with each other, which is not the case.

The moral side of things

We all know that big decisions and decisions that require years of discussion, pass more easily in times of crisis. Remember how many security protocols were introduced in 2001 after the terrorist attacks in the USA. Protocols that changed the way we live, otherwise there would be no reason to discuss it.

The idea of ​​a Contact Tracing project is simple and I say simple, because now humanity has the tools to do something like that. I am referring to the collection and analysis of "Big Data". Big Data is nothing more than the collection and analysis of large volumes of data, so large that if this technology existed during the Cold War, the course of history would be completely different.

Let me take a look back! What the KGB and the US Secret Service have been searching for throughout the Cold War for 45 years is nothing more than intelligence gathering, but more importantly, a way of analyzing that information. A lot of collected information was lost, not to mention most .. Why? Because quite simply there was no automation that exists today for their analysis.

Also what exists now and did not exist then is the constant control, both by specialized and independent organizations, as well as by associations of countries eg EU. There are many controls and fines in international internet companies for reasons of monopoly or misuse user data.

But are these able to protect us? Absolutely NO! Do not forget that the largest data sharing between Google and Facebook is done with our consent! And it is done entirely for advertising exploitation of user data.

Currently what Google can see is what we searched for and where we clicked. And through it, with words , serves us ads based on what we've searched for and what we've seen recently. Just imagine for public health reasons sometime in the future (or for health and fitness reasons I say now) to allow devices such as bracelets, watches, etc. to have access to our biostatistical data, such as our heart rate, pulse and our blood pressure. To know in a few words when we are stressed, what we look at when we are stressed, if we like what we are looking at, if we laugh or are happy when we look at something specific, etc. Then today's control of our personal data will simply resemble the discovery of fire. We are talking about completely different control and influence.

In conclusion 

All this can only be prevented through information and continuing education. None of the above can be predicted individually, except collectively. The pandemic was a punch in the stomach of globalization that showed how vulnerable the system is.

Like something that happens in a province of hers which most of us heard for the first time, can keep residents of countries and cities thousands of kilometers away locked in their homes. But if we want to be part of this world and its evolution, some things can only be fixed collectively.

Πηγές

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Written by Giorgos Koliou

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