RAPID: Location Tracking, Contact Tracing and Geospatial Privacy in COVID-19

美国的公共卫生系统有能力进行人工接触者追踪，但它们没有能力以应对新冠肺炎大流行所需的规模追踪个人。因此，正在开发联系人跟踪应用程序，该应用程序使用个人设备中的移动跟踪技术(例如，GPS、蓝牙)来收集、存储和检索个人的位置和联系人历史记录。该项目评估COVID1-19中用于公共卫生官员接触者追踪的移动位置跟踪应用程序的技术限制，以缓解新冠肺炎的影响。同时，这项研究将解决地理空间隐私问题，包括1)位置数据收集的通知和同意，以及2)个人身份识别的风险。该项目将提供开发更有效的接触者追踪系统所需的数据和结果。这项研究创建的数据库和出版物将有助于在知情的情况下就接触者追踪在疫情不同阶段应该发挥的作用进行公开辩论。随着公共卫生官员扩大接触者追踪系统以应对新冠肺炎，了解这些系统可能在何时何地最准确是至关重要的。为了满足这些需求，该项目将在美国各地部署和开发联系人跟踪技术时对其进行编目和评估。各州之间的比较研究将有助于确定在不同区域环境中最有效的技术和做法。更广泛地说，这项研究将通过解决新发展的移动位置跟踪技术的地理空间隐私以及这些技术如何为社会的健康和福利做出贡献来填补地理空间隐私文献的空白。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Public health systems in the United States have the ability to conduct manual contact tracing; however they do not have the capacity to trace individuals at the scale needed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, work is underway to develop contact tracing applications that use the mobile tracking technologies (e.g., GPS, Bluetooth) in personal devices to gather, store, and retrieve an individual’s location and contact history. This project assesses the technological limits of mobile location tracking applications being used in COVID1-19 for contact tracing by public health officials to mitigate COVID-19. At the same time this research will address questions of geospatial privacy, including 1) notice-and-consent to location data collection, and 2) risk of personal identification. The project will provide data and results that are needed to develop more effective contact tracing systems. The databases and publications created by this research will contribute to an informed public debate about the role contact tracing should play during different phases of the pandemic.As public health officials expand contact tracing systems in response to COVID-19, it is essential to know when and where those systems are likely to be most accurate. To meet these needs, this project will catalog and evaluate the contact tracking technologies as they are deployed and developed across the United States. Comparative studies across states will facilitate the identification of the technologies and practices that are most effective in different regional environments. More broadly, this research will fill the gap in geospatial privacy literature by addressing geospatial privacy of newly evolving mobile location tracking technologies and how these technologies can contribute to the health and welfare of sociey.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.