ZHET is pleased to publish a paper by Beatriz Botero Arcila on
A Human Centric Framework to Evaluate the Risks Raised by Contact-Tracing Applications
Digital technologies, data-gathering and analytics are becoming central in the strategies adopted by governments all over the world, as they address many of the challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Contact-tracing applications, in particular, promise to help contain the spread of the virus and allow societies to slowly relax physical distancing measures. However, digital solutions can pose a variety of risks to the security of individuals, and the enjoyment of human rights.
This paper proposes a framework to analyse, how technical design and governance interplay in contact-tracing applications and how these decisions balance the safety needs of individuals and society at large. The document focuses on the two most prominent models at the time of writing, the Google-Apple protocol, anounced on April 10, 2020, and the Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing protocol (DP3T), proposed by a group of technologists, legal experts, engineers and epidemiologists. It also focuses on the EU toolbox for the use of mobile applications for contact tracing.
The paper evaluates the two above mentioned protocols, and what is known about their governance and design at the time of writing.
The paper briefly explains contact tracing apps and the main design questions that have been set forth by both the European Commission framework and the Google and Apple partnership. Second, it maps the main risks posed by these applications in terms of data stewardship, network security and the enjoyment of human rights. Third, based on a map of risks developed, the paper proposes a series of considerations that governments should have in mind, when (1) adopting urgent institutional mechanisms – such as rules and privacy policies – to mitigate some of the risks posed by these technologies, (2) making design decisions about these applications when applicable, (3) and disclosing when and how these applications will be dismantled.
Given the rapid development in this field, this publication is the 1.0 edition, dated 22 April 2020, of a rolling text, which will be updated, if and when deemed necessary.
The Paper can be found here:
Beatriz Botero Arcila is a PhD candidate at Harvard Law School, a fellow at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center, and Advisor to the ICT4Peace Foundation.
ICT4Peace would like to thank Anne-Marie Buzatu for her inputs and editing of the text, and Daniel Stauffacher, Sanjana Hattotuwa, Nele Achten, Serge Droz und Urs Gasser for their inputs and comments.