Tracking COVID-19: a balancing act between public health and data privacy

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Introduction

Historically, public health authorities have used a technique called contact tracing to battle outbreaks of infectious disease.
Apple and Google, whose operating systems power the vast majority of smart phones, have unlocked software protocols to allow their phones — if owners have installed the right apps — to monitor when someone who is infected or possibly infected has contact with someone else.

But digital contact tracing also raises difficult ethical, legal and technical questions.

Rethinc. Labs, based in the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, hosted a webinar to explore the promise of digital contact tracing as well as the implications for data privacy.

Jay Swaminathan, a UNC Kenan-Flagler professor of operations, moderated a discussion among four experts:

• Stephan Biller, Vice President of Offering Management, IBM Watson Internet of Things
• Klon Kitchen, Director, Center for Technology Policy, The Heritage Foundation
• Jules Polonetsky, CEO, Future Privacy Forum
• Jim Thomas, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Director, MEASURE Evaluation Project, Carolina Population Center