Many governments in many countries around the world recognise that contact tracing plays a very important part to reduce the spread of the deadly disease, COVID-19. In this article, we take a look at the conventional method of contact tracking and comparing it against how technology helps contact tracing and its pro’s and con’s.Traditional contact tracing is a technique that is used by public health authorities to help slow the spread of a disease. It relies on manually obtaining information from individuals who have been infected and who they have been in contact with. Once individuals have been identified, they are then contacted, and relevant advice can be given. However, this is an onerous process, consuming a lot of manpower and resources and quite often the results are mixed as individuals don’t necessarily remember who they have been in contact within the past days or where they have been.Technology and Contact TracingWith the evolution of technology in the past 10 years, more and more people have turned to using smart devices on a regular basis. Millions of people around the world, of various ages, have a smartphone with them most of the time, and by taking advantage of this fact, could help identify who someone has been in proximity with.But how is this done securely without disclosing personal information and location data? Application developers and vendors have to tread a very careful path on ensuring the information is not misused or left insecure for hackers to obtain this very valuable data. There are two common data models that developers are using, a centralised model and a decentralised model.Apple vs. Google – a Decentralised ModelMajority of the smartphone market is covered by either an Apple operating system smartphone or an Android operating system smartphone. Both Apple and Goog ..
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