Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Kelsie  Nabban; Paul Gardner-Stephen; Marta Poblet

doi:10.1109/GHTC46280.2020.9342852

Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Kelsie Nabban, Paul Gardner-Stephen, Marta Poblet

College of Science and Engineering

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

COVID-19 contact tracing has rapidly emerged as a dynamic field of endeavor, with different countries taking different approaches, both politically and technologically. In this paper we examine the situation of Australia’s development of a COVID-19 contact tracing application (which is in reality a proximity tracing application) as a case-study. Both technological and societal elements are considered, in particular, the delivery of poor protection, or the perception of poor protection, of privacy and civil liberties to negatively impact the adoption of such an application, and thus hamper its potential. The rest of the paper explores this digital-politic nexus and tensions within crisis response, and examines the trade-off can be improved through increasing public trust of such technologies by improving their actual and perceived privacy and human rights properties without reducing their medical effectiveness. Lessons for humanitarian organizations are extracted from this.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Number of pages	8
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-7281-7388-7
ISBN (Print)	978-1-7281-7389-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC46280.2020.9342852
Publication status	Published - 29 Oct 2020
Event	2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC) - (Virtual), Seattle, United States Duration: 29 Oct 2020 → 1 Nov 2020 Conference number: 10th https://ieeeghtc.org/program/

Publication series

Name	2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020

Conference

Conference	2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC)
Abbreviated title	IEEE-GHTC 2020
Country/Territory	United States
City	Seattle
Period	29/10/20 → 1/11/20
Other	The 10th IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (IEEE GHTC 2020) is an international flagship conference sharing practical technology enabled solutions addressing the needs of underserved populations and resource constrained environments around the world and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG).
Internet address	https://ieeeghtc.org/program/

Keywords

COVID-19
Contact tracing
Civil liberties

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1109/GHTC46280.2020.9342852Licence: In Copyright

Cite this

Nabban, K., Gardner-Stephen, P., & Poblet, M. (2020). Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing. In 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020 Article 9342852 (2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC46280.2020.9342852

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title = "Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing",

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Nabban, K, Gardner-Stephen, P & Poblet, M 2020, Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing. in 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020., 9342852, 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), Seattle, Washington, United States, 29/10/20. https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC46280.2020.9342852

Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing. / Nabban, Kelsie ; Gardner-Stephen, Paul; Poblet, Marta.
2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2020. 9342852 (2020 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, GHTC 2020).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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PY - 2020/10/29

Y1 - 2020/10/29

N2 - COVID-19 contact tracing has rapidly emerged as a dynamic field of endeavor, with different countries taking different approaches, both politically and technologically. In this paper we examine the situation of Australia’s development of a COVID-19 contact tracing application (which is in reality a proximity tracing application) as a case-study. Both technological and societal elements are considered, in particular, the delivery of poor protection, or the perception of poor protection, of privacy and civil liberties to negatively impact the adoption of such an application, and thus hamper its potential. The rest of the paper explores this digital-politic nexus and tensions within crisis response, and examines the trade-off can be improved through increasing public trust of such technologies by improving their actual and perceived privacy and human rights properties without reducing their medical effectiveness. Lessons for humanitarian organizations are extracted from this.

AB - COVID-19 contact tracing has rapidly emerged as a dynamic field of endeavor, with different countries taking different approaches, both politically and technologically. In this paper we examine the situation of Australia’s development of a COVID-19 contact tracing application (which is in reality a proximity tracing application) as a case-study. Both technological and societal elements are considered, in particular, the delivery of poor protection, or the perception of poor protection, of privacy and civil liberties to negatively impact the adoption of such an application, and thus hamper its potential. The rest of the paper explores this digital-politic nexus and tensions within crisis response, and examines the trade-off can be improved through increasing public trust of such technologies by improving their actual and perceived privacy and human rights properties without reducing their medical effectiveness. Lessons for humanitarian organizations are extracted from this.

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KW - Civil liberties

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Identifying and Mitigating Humanitarian Challenges to COVID-19 Contact Tracing

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Keywords

UN SDGs

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