Safe Paths: A privacy-first approach to contact tracing
The research described in this article has been published on a preprint server but has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts. Fast containment is key to halting the progression of pandemics, and rapid determination of a diagnosed patient’s locations and contact history is a vital step for communities and cities. This process is labor-intensive, susceptible to human memory errors, and fraught with privacy concerns. Smartphones can aid in this process, though any type of mass surveillance network and analytics can lead to — or be misused by — a surveillance state. Early contact-tracing tools deployed in certain countries against the current Covid-19 pandemic have indeed helped slow the spread, but have done so at the expense of the privacy of citizens and businesses, exposing even the most private details about individuals. To help address this urgent challenge, a team led by MIT Media Lab Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar is designing and...