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COVCT. COVCT is among several contact tracking applications that have been increased to help make contact tracking more efficient. COVCT / YouTube Screenshot
There are a plethora of online contact tracking apps and platforms out there right now, all looking to ease the amount of manual labor involved in contact tracking or tracking and monitoring people who may have been in contact with an infected person. . It is the practice of essentially chasing down possible virus carriers, isolating them and preventing them from continuing the virus chain.
Traditionally, the process is labor intensive and may not be feasible in cases where the virus spreads overwhelms the workforce for contact tracing.
How can apps help? Using Bluetooth, a phone and a corresponding app can determine who a person has been around. If the person tests positive for the virus, they can report it in the application, which will then alert those, who have the same application, who have been very close to the infected person. With the information, people can take steps to protect themselves and others.
The design and technology used can vary between applications and platforms, but the main service is the same: monitor where the virus is spreading and alert people immediately if they are in danger of being infected and infect others.
The rise of these apps has also sparked a response from privacy advocates and experts, calling for strict guidelines to keep private information safe, anonymous, and protected from possible abuse by the state and other parties.
France, Israel, Germany, Singapore, South Korea and other Asian countries have deployed or made proposals for similar technology-assisted contact locating measures along with other quarantine monitoring methods.
In the Philippines, here are the apps and online platforms trying to do it now:
StaySafe.ph. Government application and website developed and administered free of charge by Multisys Technologies Corporation, supported by PLDT. It will generate a heat map for infections using self-reported information. The privacy statement is available here. https://www.staysafe.ph/privacy-statement
WeTrace. A contact tracking app in Cebu, which Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has required for everyone in the province to install. Developed by a Cebuano academic from the Department of Science and Technology.
ENDCoV. Developed by students of the Master of Science in Innovation and Business graduate program at the Asian Institute of Management.
CLEAR (Citizen Logistics and Early Assessment Report Tool) – Developed by Philippine firms Spring Valley Tech Corp (owned by the president of the Philippine Software Industry Association) and CMI Tech. The platform uses Huawei Cloud as its cloud infrastructure and has partnerships with Globe and PLDT, which will provide subscribers access the application. The developers said usage patterns in the Philippines, such as pre-paid usage dominance and internet penetration levels, have been considered.
TanodCOVID. This is the contact tracking feature of the FASSSTER forecasting tool (Viability analysis of syndromic surveillance using the spatio-temporal epidemiological modeler). It is a self-report tool found on the FASSSTER website. Local government may register on the site to view aggregate data on the spread of the virus and not individual data. The local government can only view the data in their specific city or municipality.
CovCT – An application developed by Madison Technologies, based in Singapore, first available in Malaysia in April and now in the Philippines. ABS-CBN reported that the company is also working on ways for people to “record” their information without a smartphone or internet access.
Project made by Apple and Google. Currently under development. The owners of the 2 largest mobile phone platforms in the world come together to create an interoperable system that enables Bluetooth-enabled tracking to work seamlessly between Android and iOS devices, and perhaps even between different contact tracking apps.
They are not creating an app, but they are building the framework that ensures contact tracking apps work seamlessly between Android and iOS devices (3 billion between them) while developing security and privacy protocols.
Contact search efforts in the Philippines are led by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) transfers responsibility to the Department of Health (DOH) on Sunday, April 12.
The IATF ordered the OCD and DOH to sign a “data exchange agreement” for contact tracking activities, guided by the provisions of Republic Law No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Law, but also adopted “The policy of mandatory public disclosure of personal information related to positive COVID-19 cases to enhance government contact search efforts,” according to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles. – Rappler.com
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