Contact tracking is widely used technique with lots of diseases new and old.
The effectiveness of any voluntary system is, of course, how many volunteers participate
Indeed, but the issue extends quite a bit further. In all the talk about COVID tracing/contact apps an important element is often missing, and that is that the social aspects of such apps are just as critical as the technical ones, if not more so, because the apps cannot control for them. This is discussed in Stefan Volk’s article
Coronavirus contact-tracing...ne does. He isn’t the only one to emphasize this.
These and other aspects of such apps not related to privacy concerns were mentioned a week earlier in an interview with Lokke Moerel, specialized in technology and international law
This tech professor is very...oncerns (in Dutch; see
Google Translate if needed). Note that Moerel lists some of the ways users can sabotage the apps if circumstances push them too far.
At the same time similar objections were voiced by experts critical of a number of such apps the Dutch government considered for possible use:
Seven corona apps after mes... about'. Following consultations, all apps were rejected as proposed.
In a
Simulation of the effect of corona apps it was shown that
in themselves these apps will have a minimal effect, and that
a combination of social and technical strategies is needed. Bottom line: such apps can be useful, but are a far cry from what most people think they can achieve. And remember, that's
without considering any privacy issues.
