In an attempt to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading, governments across the world are launching location tracking mobile applications to monitor quarantined people.
The apps raise serious privacy concerns, but have proven effective in ensuring people’s compliance with the quarantine rules.
Following the experience of other countries, Ukraine has rolled out its own mobile app to monitor citizens in self-isolation using GPS data, the Digital Transformation Ministry has announced.
Starting on April 6, all Ukrainians who arrived in the country from abroad since March 17 and signed documents upon their arrival promising to self-isolate for 14 days will receive a text message from the government with the link to install the app. Those infected who are being treated at home will also receive the link.
However, since the government is currently only testing the app, it won’t punish those who refuse to use it. For now, it will be 100% voluntary and simply meant to ease communication between the self-isolated and police.
Called Diy Vdoma and available in both the App Store and Google Play, the app will send its users 10 push notifications at random times for 14 consecutive days, asking them to take selfies from their place of self-isolation. The app’s artificial intelligence will then analyze the selfies for their GPS locations.
If there’s no proof that one has stayed in quarantine within 15 minutes of the app asking for a picture, the police will receive a notification about a possible violation of the quarantine regime. After receiving a few such alerts, law enforcement agencies will decide how to check on the self-isolated.
Apart from checking the geolocation of the photos, the app also gives its users quick access to the emergency hotline. If the app is effective, Digital Transformation Minister Fedorov’s team will introduce food and medication deliveries via the app.
Despite its potential benefits, the new digital service has sparked many controversies among cybersecurity specialists.
The main concern, according to digital security expert Roman Khimich, is a lack of trust in the e-services provided by the government.
There was no opportunity for independent cybersecurity professionals to review the code and the working documents of the app, and Ukrainians know nothing about the system they are asked to rely on, Khimich told the Kyiv Post.
“It makes it impossible to trust and raises the worst suspicions,” he said.
Not so Orwellian
Despite the concerns, Fedorov says that Ukraine has studied the world’s best approaches to tracking isolated people and has come up with a “light” version of the location tracking app.
Poland has used a similar approach. Its government also used geolocated selfies to monitor how people who returned from abroad comply with 14-day self-isolation. But the Polish app Home Quarantine is mandatory and is being automatically installed on smartphones.
The Ukrainian app is not mandatory, but those volunteering to use it may save themselves from additional stress.
The government’s Resolution No. 211 obliges people returning home from abroad and being treated at home for COVID-19 to self-isolate for 14 days. It also implies that the self-isolation regime should be monitored by the police, military or National Guard.
To check quarantine regime compliance, law enforcement can pay a visit to the self-isolated whenever they want. The app, meanwhile, helps them monitor those people remotely, minimizing the need for unannounced visits.
“People can ignore the message offering to install the app,” Anastasia Rymarchuk, the Digital Transformation Ministry’s spokesperson, told the Kyiv Post. “But then the police can pay unexpected visits to their places of self-isolation.”
The fine for violating quarantine rules is Hr 34,000, or about $1,200.
Privacy concerns
The Digital Transformation Ministry says that the personal data of patients who are expected to use the app is only available for the 14 days of self-isolation — after that, it erases itself.
That data includes name and surname, address, date of birth, phone number, health status, GPS-location and information about the hospitalization or self-isolation requirements.
When the app is being installed, the person should give consent for the processing of personal data that allows the ministry – as the app provider – to collect, preserve and use the data, according to the Ukrainian law “On Information.”
But there are no legal, procedural or technical guarantees that personal data will not “leak” outside the system, said digital security expert Khimich.
Alternative options
For people who do not have smartphones, nor access to the internet, the ministry will launch a help center that will make regular phone calls to check whether a person is home or if they need anything.
According to Fedorov, the call center will be necessary in less than 5% of cases.
The next step for his ministry will be the introduction of QR codes in public places. When scanned, they will ask for personal information, one’s home address and place of work. Then the authorities will be able to send notifications about the proximity of people infected with COVID-19 in the area. Thus, the authorities will know whom to test for the disease.
“No geotargeting,” Fedorov said, meaning that the ministry won’t invade people’s privacy to tract their location, but rather give them the choice to opt in. A person can start using the service voluntarily to know about possible contacts with infected citizens.
Digital contact tracing was at the core of the coronavirus containment strategy in China, South Korea and Singapore. The Chinese app, however, uses Bluetooth to estimate users’ proximity to each other. It sends people a red or green code, determining whether they need to self-isolate.
The same technology is used in Singapore, where citizens who receive an alert about contact with infected people should be immediately tested for COVID-19.
Israel, where nearly 10% of the population works in high-tech industries, has developed an app that assesses coronavirus symptoms based on the sound of people’s voices.
