Oh, and maybe this could also be used to avoid certain crimes such as terrorism?
You know where this leads to.
> Oh, and maybe this could also be used to avoid certain crimes such as terrorism?
> You know where this leads to.
Exactly, these capabilities won't go away. Today they are used for good but tomorrow? Not to invoke Godwin's Law but these contact tracing capabilities would have been a Nazi's wet dream.
Full open-source everything isn’t air-tight, but potentially a lot better than what we’ve got.
Also: as a mathematician, there is lots of value in a counterexample to part of a proof. Just that, even though the final result is true.
Not necessarily. They included in the article that we could use decentralized contact tracing instead; and, an article arguing against a feature doesn't need an alternative.
If a refrigerator were being released with a microwave, do I really need to provide alternatives to where I could put the microwave instead?
Among other arguments, it argues that contact tracing is a source of mass surveillance. That alone, for the appropriate crowd, is enough reason to not use it. There doesn't need to be an alternative because the alternative is _not having it_.
Just because a bunch of developers ended up wasting their resources on a feature that is a net loss for society doesn't mean that the feature needs to be released.
GACT is decentralized. The article is arguing against decentralized contact tracing.
> a feature that is a net loss for society
The article doesn't even try to make that argument, which is why it is not very good.
Perhaps similar or related, I'd read that Taiwan's using an alert system[1] that uses the absence of cell phone activity as a sign that it may be necessary to check on the owner.
Some places have digital access but in general the temperature measurement of bigger buildings are automated. But most places I went to had a paper form to fill out your details. I assume those are shared with law enforcement and CDC once one person who attended the building has been traced as a positive case and then all people and their contacts will be notified and tested.
There is no centralized government mandated central database that I know of. But I do know that once a crime happens they're quite good at tracing your public movements.
Contact tracing is clearly useful, but on it’s one does not change the basic reproduction numbers much. Look at South Korea which still has active infections despite active contact tracing and very successful social distancing.
Contact tracing COVID-19 is suplimental not a solution.
PS: As to my point, if you’re a grocery store employee in NYC you are likely to have been in contact with someone with COVID-19 in the last week. We can’t simply send all of them home, that’s the issue with contact tracing when a meaningful percentage of the population is infected. You need looser restrictions which reduces effectiveness.
“but not reduced it enough that contact tracing is likely viable”
For example, NYC has seemingly slowed the spread enough it’s possible to Test for and track new cases. But if you dig into their numbers 4,264 deaths are linked to COVID but where not tested prior to death. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doh/covid/covid-19-data.page. They have little idea who’s currently infected and “ Due to delays in reporting, recent data are incomplete.”
Essentially they need a solid 2 weeks of minimal new cases. At which point they can start meaningful contract tracing, but contract tracing does not mean you can just get back to normal. Just slightly reduce the amount of isolation.
Remember, virus still doubles every 2-3 days under normal conditions. Without a vaccine or herd immunity, contact tracing alone does very little. It’s enough to reopen dental offices possibly hair salons, not schools.