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Masks directly help prevent spread, the app does not. It's essentially a decision-support system, and I agree with Schneier that on an individual contact tracin
by timkam 6y ago
Masks directly help prevent spread, the app does not. It's essentially a decision-support system, and I agree with Schneier that on an individual contact tracing-level, it's probably not a good one. But _perhaps_ it helps if it's well-designed and presents aggregates of probabilistic information well. If its underlying models are good it can, for example, inform a user where not to go because the infection risk is too high, after it has gathered data of frequent close encounters between otherwise "distanced" people in a location.
- AlanSE 6y agoComparing it to the alternative of health professionals doing contact tracing, in addition to the fact that it's vastly better at its job, it would also be a privacy-protecting system. Say that I have close contact with a co-worker named Joe on a regular basis. I get diagnosed positive. I don't have Joe's phone (it's not all that normal to exchange personal phone numbers with co-workers). So now I'm asking sick time from my manager John and talking with someone performing contact tracing. Now this health professional has to play phone tag to get Joe's number, and John will obviously put 2-and-2 together and know what happened. So will others in the phone tag.