Privacy and Contact Tracing During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Contact tracing is a key public health strategy used to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. The process of contact tracing generally involves identifying people who have a contagious disease, along with anyone they may have exposed (their contacts) and working with them to interrupt any further disease transmission.
While contact tracing has been an effective and long-standing public health practice, some of the traditional means of contact (for example, home or physician visits) may occur over a period of days. As the world navigates the fast spread of COVID-19 infections, the need for more immediate methods of contact through modern technology started to transform this process. The State of California recently launched a COVID-19 contact tracing program called California Connected and public health workers contact individuals infected with COVID-19 by phone, text, or email. All information collected by the local public health departments, including identities of any other exposed individuals, remains confidential.
In May 2020, Apple and Google collaborated on the development of contact tracing technology and released an Exposure Notification application programming interface to be used with mobile applications that notify individuals of COVID-19 exposures. Although this type of technology has accelerated contact tracing efforts, the use has elevated concerns from some privacy advocates, particularly regarding data collection, storage, and usage. In response, the American Civil Liberties Union recommended some privacy-by-design principles and policy safeguards that should be incorporated in the creation of contacting tracing technology, and encouraged the use of strict policies to protect the collected data. Congress has introduced three separate bills, the COVID-19 Consumer Data Protection Act, Public Health Emergency Privacy Act, and Exposure Notification Privacy Act to establish privacy protections of health information during a national health emergency. As contact tracing protocols continue to integrate technologies that will improve the practice, it is imperative that sound privacy and security protocols are in place.
Click here to learn more information about the LA County Department of Public Health’s contact tracing program.
