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Experts call for more evidence on benefits of the app amid data concerns
Data privacy concerns are mounting over a new NHS coronavirus contact-tracing app despite developers insisting that privacy is at its heart.
The app uses Bluetooth technology to register contact when users come within six feet of each other for at least 15 minutes.
It is being piloted on the Isle of Wight as part of the UK government’s new “test, track and trace” programme, and uses a controversial approach where data are stored centrally and are available for analysis—rather than being stored on phones, as is the case with a rival app developed by Google and Apple.
Matthew Gould, CEO for the app’s developer, NHSX, insists privacy was “right at the heart of how it works”. He has published the app’s code and promised to publish its privacy assessment. “The app is designed so that you don’t have to give it your personal details to use it,” he said.
But many researchers remain unconvinced.
“Privacy is much broader than that,” Eerke Boiten, director of the Cyber Technology Institute at De Montfort University, told Research Fortnight. “[It] includes thinking about how else the data might be used, how it might be abused, who holds the data… what the polices around it are, what the legal protections are for the data and who the data can be shared with.”
In particular, he is concerned about how the data may be used by researchers studying the virus, by intelligence services, and by employers. “I am worried about the line that this is presented as ‘anonymised’ data,” he said. He said he did not believe such data could be anonymised.
Together with more than 170 UK scientists and researchers in the fields of information security and privacy, Boiten recently signed a statement urging specialists to analyse the health benefits of the app and find out if it is “of value to justify the dangers involved”.
Under mounting pressure, NHSX is now reportedly develop-ing a decentralised version of the app, in case policymakers opt for that approach.
Carsten Maple, a professor of cyber systems engineering at the University of Warwick, believes more evidence is needed on public attitudes to the app. Last week he launched a survey of 2,000 members of the public funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to try to find out what they want.
“What we need to do is stop talking about what we think people want and try to get some evidence,” said Maple. He plans to release the results of the survey in a few weeks in the hope that the government will take steps to allay the public’s fears.
This article also appeared in Research Fortnight