Contact Tracing Apps: What Do They Mean for Privacy in the Era of COVID-19?

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, I’m joined by my colleague Olivier Blanchard and our focus today is on a discussion around contact tracing apps — and what these apps mean for privacy in the era of COVID-19. With the development and deployment of contract tracing apps, are privacy and security concerns taking a back seat when it comes to combating the COVID-19 pandemic?

Olivier has written a lot on the topic of privacy and security concerns the world over in recent months. He has also covered the Google Apple partnership in a recent analyst insight article: Google, Apple COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Partnership: The Good and the Bad, in case you’d like the latest on what Google and Apple are partnering to do in terms of a contract tracing offering, which is due to launch mid-May

Our conversation touched on what’s going on elsewhere in the world as it relates to the use of contact-tracing apps to combat the spread of COVID-19, including updates in global markets ranging from South Korea, Singapore, China, and Taiwan, to Australian and Germany, and even what’s happening in some individual states in the United States as it relates to contract tracing apps.

We also talked about what’s happening in the private sector with the development and deployment of apps designed to provide contract tracing capabilities to enterprises and what’s likely ahead there. This might present an interesting challenge for employees who aren’t comfortable opting in to contact tracing apps, but whose options might well be to either have a job and participate in contact tracing apps, or, well, to not have that job.

This was an interesting discussion about contract tracing apps, who are sure to be in our not-too-distant future in some way or another, and what they mean for privacy in the era of COVID-19.