Ethical Design of Contact Tracing App
For the last few months, all of us have been handling a very unusual and challenging time. I’m rather sure none of us will ever forget the eleventh day of February, when we got to know the name of the virus that has taken over the world, COVID-19. This virus has remained on people’s emotional radar, so there’s a need to take essential steps to circumvent any more loss of life.
However, others may argue that the virus seems to be like SARS that the planet faced in 2003 because both are respiratory diseases begun by bats, having relative resilience in the air and on other surfaces. But I would like to point out that SARS was much more lethal than COVID-19, as the mortality rate was 10%, whereas the rates for COVID-19 are estimated to be within 0.25
3 %. It was Larry brilliant who had first described to us what a pandemic is all about and how the deadly virus could smear all over the world in no time back in 2006. He had put great emphasis on the early detection of the virus i.e. within the first two weeks could help in mitigating the overall situation. Fear and human blindness according to him were the two primary causes that could make circumstances worrisome.
Nevertheless, the usage of developing technology such as IoT, AI, and also machine learning, along with ‘social distancing’ the spread could be very well controlled.
The proposal for contact tracing application, which many of the Governments are intending to use, must maintain confidentiality without breaching the rights of individuals and organizations. Tech giants like google and apple have also collaborated to build software that could be used by all their current users instantly.
The app demands to be installed on individual phones with an active Bluetooth connection. Thus, when a user adheres to other users having a corresponding app installed there will be a Bluetooth handshake to preserve a log of other phones. Recognizing social reasoning I strongly feel this data must be saved anonymously, so users are connected in a very protected way.
Hence, if any one of the users tests positive for COVID-19 and registers that data, a notification must be sent to the users that have been in close contact with that person in recent weeks. The cautioned users can then take imminent steps to isolate themselves from the public and slow down the virus spread.
Although there are many ethical considerations that most of the developers need to keep in cognizance while designing the overall app like, is it voluntary, how the data will get used, and will it be erased after a time.
For instance, the developers must retain the Utilitarian standard in mind, which is the app should do the biggest gain for all its stakeholders i.e. in contact tracing with the abruptest amount of data being collected. Moreover, the app must be designed and implemented to lessen the impact on privacy and the use of identifiable information. It should also restrict any unauthorized access and misuse of information.
This can be fulfilled by using uniformly changing random identifiers and only uploading data to a server if somebody who has tested positive grants them consent. Often, the security features must be engineered to be as intuitive and easy to use as possible.
Users should be democratically entitled to choose whether to adopt the platform, with the aim of not imposing the technology as a lasting addition to society.
For group dynamics, I would want to focus on deontological ethical consideration i.e. the development of such an app must be overlooked by an inclusive and transparent advisory board including members of the society,
for cultivating a sense of belonging and cooperation. The app should collect limited user details but not track their movements and only upload the data to a central server when diagnosed positive, so there will be clarity regarding the planned and actual use of the data. Besides, the data must be destroyed once the user is out of the crisis.
Besides that, tracing apps may intensify legitimate concerns surrounding justice and equity. These are moderately correlated to virtue ethical consideration for instance, socially and economically vulnerable individuals and organizations are less likely to have access to smartphones, so efforts must be made to identify and resolve potential inequities in the adoption and usage of tracking apps.
To sum up, I believe that developers and policy officials need to support laymen grasp the technology and its implications through government advertisement programs and digital marketing. Also, efforts must be made to address specific stigma issues like the fear of being ostracised through communication about Covid-19, for utilizing the software to its full potential.
As our prime minister says, ‘we are all in this together’, this should be the most prominent ethical concern everyone should have somewhere in their consciousness
