European, Asian and American countries have invested millions of USD in developing smartphone tracking application.
As Covid-19 spread around the world, many countries turned to technology as an important means to prevent the spread of the virus. Many tools have been tested and deployed such as scanning QR codes, wearing navigation bracelets, automatic body temperature measurement, AI facial recognition. Among these, a solution that attracts great attention is the application using Bluetooth tracing.
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| Traceability applications are being deployed in many countries but with varying degrees of adoption |
Asia
Asian countries have implemented traceability applications early, such as Singapore in mid-March 2020, or Vietnam in April 2020.
For Singaporeans, Covid-19 is associated with two technologies. The first is the QR code in the safety system. Anyone entering a public place, such as restaurants, shops, shopping malls ... must scan the code and register by name, ID number, passport, phone number. If a person tests positive for Covid-19, exposure monitoring devices will output information about potential exposure situations. The second is the TraceTogether tracing application, which uses Bluetooth connectivity to measure distances and store contact history. If there is a positive case, the person's exposure history will be decoded by the Department of Health to send an alert to the near contact.
When the two systems were deployed, many people expressed concern, but the Singapore government asserted that the data was only used to trace during the pandemic. TraceTogether is also repeatedly cited as a successful example with installs exceeding 50% of the country's population.
However, in early January this year, the Ministry of the Interior of Singapore confirmed the traceability data could be accessed by the police to investigate the crime. The revelation met with a public reaction and shortly after, the government announced the enactment of new laws to restrict law enforcement from using the data to investigate.
In Vietnam, the Bluezone application was born in April last year, is confirmed to operate on the principles of security, anonymity, and transparency. The contact history record is encrypted and stored locally on the phone, does not transfer to the system nor requires an identity, and does not collect the user's location.
In mid-August 2020, Bluezone surpassed 20 million downloads. After the new cases were announced on January 28, Bluezone continued to rise among the most downloaded apps on the App Store and Google Play. As of the morning of January 29, Bluezone has attracted 25.3 million downloads.
America
Most countries introduced a mid-range traceability application last year, but in the US, this application appears inconsistent across states.
Apple and Google announced their cooperation from the beginning of April 2020, but it wasn't until five months later that the two sides introduced the Exposure Notifications Express. The tool allows medical agencies to launch applications without writing code, paving the way for widespread deployment. However, to date, the popularity and effectiveness of the tool are still unclear. "The people behind these efforts need to show evidence that they are actually doing something. So far, I personally have not seen any significant effect," said Ryan Calo, professor at the University. Washington, reviews.
Meanwhile, many states in the US spent millions of dollars developing their own tracking apps before the launch of the Exposure Notifications Express, like the $ 700,000 in New York app and the $ 229,000 in Virginia.
As of the end of 2020, 22 states have launched a tracking application while others are still considering it. For example, although the number of infections has increased, authorities in Illinois have remained hesitant about the possibility of developing the application due to concerns about privacy and practical efficiency.
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| The development cost of NY Covid Alert was $ 700,000, but it was only installed by 5% of New Yorkers |
In developed states, app downloads are also slow. Appeared from October 2020 in New York, the number of NY Covid Alert downloads accounted for only 5% of the population here as of December 2020. Less than 3,000 out of 180,000 cases have been positive since the application was installed, so the efficiency is not high.
Similarly, Nevada's app is installed by 4% of the state's population, while in Virginia it is about 10% of the population. Colorado's app seems to be the most popular with 20% of the population installed according to data from the state's Emergency Operations Center.
Europe
Once launched in the first half of 2020, Iceland's traceability app quickly gained popularity with around 40% of the population. The number of downloads then continues to increase during the tourist season, as visitors are advised to download the application for the prevention of Covid-19. However, unlike some other applications in Europe that only use Bluetooth, Iceland's software also uses GPS to locate the phone with the permission of the installer.
In Switzerland, the SwissCovid application was tested on May 25, 2020, and after four months it attracted 2.3 million downloads out of a total population of 8.5 million. As of September 2020, the app alerts an average of 56 exposures per day and a good rating.
Launched in June 2020, the German tracking app is seen as "an important additional tool to reduce infection rates". After 3 months, the app was downloaded 17.8 million times (the population of this country is 83 million).
In contrast, the StopCovid solution announced by the French government at the beginning of June last year was not as convincing as expected. By mid-August 2020, it had only been downloaded 2.3 million times, while the population of this country was 67 million.
Controversial efficiency
The simulation model of Oxford University (UK) shows that governments need to call for at least 56% of the total population to use them, to use tracing applications to work effectively. Therefore, most of the applications that are being deployed have not reached their full potential due to the number of installations that have not reached the expected level.
By the end of 2020, Professors Sarah Kreps and Baobao Zhang, graduate students at the University of Science and Arts (USA), surveyed more than 2,000 Americans about different Covid-19 surveillance measures. Only 42% want the government to encourage the use of traceability applications, while 62% approve of the temperature test and 57% agree with the traditional traceability method.
According to Newscientist, letting 2/3 of the population install apps is a "tough" goal. Bluetooth technology itself has certain limitations, for example wasting battery life, or giving false warnings, like two people standing a wall apart can also be considered to be at risk.
Zhang and Kreps write: "Application of traceability could theoretically reduce viral infection, but the epidemiological model shows that the application can only contribute to pandemic prevention if accepted by at least 60% of the population. Smartphone traceability is an example of a conditional partnership in which individuals are only willing to participate if they find that others are involved."
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