MIT PRESS publishes new book on contact-tracing apps and public health : Landau explains the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of a range of
technological interventions, including dongles in Singapore that collect
proximity information; India's biometric national identity system;
Harvard University's experiment, TraceFi; and China's surveillance
network. Other nations rejected China-style surveillance in favor of
systems based on Bluetooth, GPS, and cell towers, but Landau explains
the limitations of these technologies. She also reports that many
current apps appear to be premised on a model of middle-class income and
a job that can be done remotely. How can they be effective when
low-income communities and front-line workers are the ones who are hit
hardest by the virus? COVID-19 will not be our last pandemic; we need to
get this essential method of infection control right.
