
Singapore to Open Source Bluetooth Contact Tracing - jdkuepper
https://bluetrace.io
======
luminati
There is also an app/project out of MIT called 'Private Kit', which is
primarily designed to address the privacy issue.

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/mit-researchers-launch-
location...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/mit-researchers-launch-location-
tracking-effort-for-the-new-coronavirus-11585315674)

[2] [https://safepaths.mit.edu/](https://safepaths.mit.edu/)

------
m4rtink
Another project by a group of Czech volunteers:

[https://github.com/covid19cz/erouska-
android](https://github.com/covid19cz/erouska-android)

[https://github.com/covid19cz/erouska-
ios](https://github.com/covid19cz/erouska-ios)

------
mcshicks
It's kind of far down in the page so I missed it the first time I scanned it.

"We are working around the clock to finalise our protocol reference documents
and reference implementation, to open source what we have built, so that
others may deploy their own flavours of TraceTogether - each implementing the
BlueTrace protocol. We appreciate your patience in the meantime."

------
Dystopian
I feel like this would be a lot easier and have a higher rate of
usage/compliance if our tech companies actually worked with people to release
or opt-into sharing this information for when it's necessary (information
which is already secretly shared with governments for security).

For the majority of people if they go to
[https://www.google.com/maps/timeline](https://www.google.com/maps/timeline)
they'll have a tracker of everywhere they've visited and the time they were in
each location.

If you could take people's accounts who've been infected and give them the
ability to opt-into sharing this information you could have a pretty good
source of information about the locations where they dwelled for long periods
of time and who should go into self-isolation.

~~~
bingojess
I don't think anyone trusts Google enough. They can help by providing
governments with anonymized data they already have. Immediately what comes to
mind is identifying to governments public hot spots while lockdowns are
supposed to be going on so that they can send people to disperse the
gatherings. I'm sure people can come up with better ideas

------
onion2k
If this gets any sort of public traction it'll be built in to shop doorways,
public transport, police cars, and street lights within a couple of months.

~~~
snarf21
Yeah, in a new york minute. This is already built into iOS in their newer Find
My Phone. The carriers also know who and where we are just need to add in
covid testing data. The problem is that even if it is decentralized and OSS,
then the average user can't/won't install it. If it is simple and easy
(centralized), then it becomes a honey pot for the government.

~~~
t0ughcritic
Carriers know where we are, are you referring to triangulation?

~~~
fierarul
Tower info plus other sources. A while back I couldn't stop my iPhone from
connecting to the 'free' Orange WiFi at my mall.

Since signal is weak I enabled 'WiFi calling' which also shares location info
with the carrier (so they know if you are roaming or not, presumably).

------
sohkamyung
Update: has now been open-sourced [1]

[1] [https://github.com/OpenTrace-community](https://github.com/OpenTrace-
community)

------
tomcooks
Can't wait to be tracked by tech developed by a governmental team in the name
of safety. Opensource or not a leash is a leash.

~~~
mshroyer
This is needlessly cynical. TraceTogether uses client-side logging so as to
leave data in the hands of the users up until it's actually needed for contact
tracing.

Would you suggest that we not have public health departments engage in contact
tracing at all to combat the pandemic? If so, I'm not sure what to tell you.

Otherwise, apps may go a long way to improve the speed and accuracy of contact
tracing. Here in the US, I'd much rather use a protocol like TraceTogether's
Bluetrace that goes out of its way to preserve privacy, than adopt an
actually-privacy-violating centralized approach where the government simply
gathers everyone's location data and processes it centrally (Israel's
approach, for example).

~~~
tomcooks
Cynical for sure, don't know about that "needlessly" given it's an endless
fight where everytime you give up a right it's taken away forever. This time
they give you the opensource bit, next time it's "a matter of emergency", then
they stop asking and just punish you if you don't comply.

>Would you suggest that we not have public health departments engage in
contact tracing at all to combat the pandemic? If so, I'm not sure what to
tell you.

I have never said that so I am not sure what to tell you. The only method that
works is quarantine, remote control is a copout to address the lack of contact
with the population. Moreover, what I am addressing is how the tracking is
NEVER going to go away even after the emergency is gone.

> Israel's approach for example

On this topic, Israel tech companies are right now sending out business
proposals to the Italian government to try and implement their methods (viz.
[https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/primopiano/coronavirus_z...](https://www.ilgazzettino.it/nordest/primopiano/coronavirus_zaia_cosa_ha_detto_oggi_privacy_sospendere_legge-5134478.html\);)
last thing Europe needs during this crysis is ANOTHER political mindset shift
towards walls and a iron boot.

~~~
groby_b
"The only method that works is quarantine"

Literally _nobody_ in the epi community believes that. Would you please state
your credentials, or cite a credible source for that statement? (For the
opposite, please do read takes from Trevor Bedford, Mark Lipsitch, Carl
Bergstrom, Andy Slavitt or really pretty much anybody in the field)

We (the US) are _currently_ in a state were suppression is the only prudent
tool. As SK has shown, contact tracing & testing help a lot once you're not
completely inundated by cases (and actually have a meaningful supply of
equipment)

Yes, there are privacy concerns. Work on them. Address them. But blanket
statements like "only quarantine works" are extremely detrimental to public
health efforts - the last thing you want is an "all or nothing" mindset

~~~
bosie
> We (the US) are currently in a state were suppression is the only prudent
> tool

How do you know that this is the current state?

> As SK has shown, contact tracing & testing help a lot once you're not
> completely inundated by cases (and actually have a meaningful supply of
> equipment)

"meaningful supply of equipment" means this option is not possible in the US?

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _How do you know that this is the current state?_

Look at the number of cases and their regional distribution, realize that
those are _tested_ cases and thus, with a) asymptomatic carriers and b) really
bad testing in the US, the number of active cases is at least 10x that. Then
realize you're dealing with an exponential process. United States are
_thoroughly infected_ already.

> _" meaningful supply of equipment" means this option is not possible in the
> US?_

Not now, but if and when the US implements proper suppression measures, and
the number of cases goes down to manageable levels (while at the same time the
supply chain of PPE catches up to demand), _then_ the supply of equipment will
be meaningful.

~~~
bosie
I guess i misunderstood surpression. Thought surpression is the early stages
and not when you have been thouroughly infected already.

"meaningful supply" was in the context of avoiding a lockdown and hence i
don't undrestand your answer. if you don't have the equipment now, how do you
avoid the lockdown and make the levels go down without large quantities of
dead people?

~~~
groby_b
I'm not an epidemiologist, or an MD, so with a large grain of salt:

Containment: Testing & contact tracing - you try to contain the disease before
it widely spreads. Usually one of the early stages of fighting.

Mitigation: You can't contain any more, and you're trying to slow down the
progress to avoid a large peak. Test & treat those with severe symptoms,
encourage people with mild symptoms to stay home, encourage people to keep
distance.

Suppression: Things have hit the fan. You need to drastically halt the
progress of the epidemic. This is shelter-in-place, lockdown, quarantine etc.
#staythefuckhome has become a bit more mandatory. That's pretty much where we
are right now. You want to drastically reduce the number of infections in a
short amount of time.

"Meaningful supply" was in the context of suppression actually taking hold. At
some point, you're hopefully down to illness levels where containment or
mitigation make sense again. But for that to happen, you need tests, you need
PPE, you need infrastructure so you actually can contain. We're at
suppression/lockdown because we failed at that the first time round.

So, it's not about avoiding the lockdown now.

The goal is lockdown now to prevent catastrophic overload and buy time to get
supplies in place for later containment stages.

Hope that clarifies? But, of course, containment is not guaranteed to work, so
we might be cycling back and forth between those measures

The report #9 from the Imperial College of London details the ideas behind
that cycling approach: [https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-
college/medicine/s...](https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-
college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-
modelling-16-03-2020.pdf)

~~~
bosie
Great, thank you very much for the thourough reply and link.

------
Fiahil
I just got out of a call where we arrived at the exact same design as a way to
track down the infection spread.

Thank you for posting this!

------
votepaunchy
Would like to see Apple utilize their ultrawideband chip for decentralized
contact tracing.

------
Rifu
I think in these extraordinary times, it’s nice to see the government
proactively trying to do more to counteract the worst pandemic the country has
ever seen. As much as we might all cry foul over the curtailing of freedom,
there is a lot to be said in this current environment about contact tracers
immediately knowing who a known covid carrier has come in contact with, which
in turn means a speedier response from the medical teams.

That being said though, the app is absolute garbage on iPhone. Obviously not
really their fault, but needing to have the app actively on for it to work is
absolutely going to lead to people not bothering to turning it on.

~~~
mshroyer
I agree this is bad, but I don't understand why it is. Not an iOS developer
but I was under the impression apps can run in the background to maintain
Bluetooth connections.

Assuming Apple's policies are in fact preventing them from running in the
background, does Apple have a mechanism to grant them an exception for this
use case? Does someone have a contact at Apple who could reach out to them?

~~~
zyl1n
Not an iOS developer either, but I think apps cannot make new bluetooth
connections in background, which is a requirement for this app.

------
mikebelanger
Lots of neat descriptions on the page. Can't wait to see the reference
documents.

------
joshblour
I built a react native version:
[https://github.com/yonahforst/trackandtrace](https://github.com/yonahforst/trackandtrace)

Looking for contributors!

------
badrabbit
It should be opt-in, if you don't opt-in,mandatory quara tine for you. And
this should not be something they can renew after the crisis like the US
Patriot act.

------
sly010
Sadly this won't happen in the US. Even if it's really private, people won't
install it unless it's pushed down to them as an update from above, and no
company will want to be the first to push it.

I suspect the bigger issue is people don't want to be told by an app that they
need to go get tested.

Come to think of it, cities like New York could push it as part of a bigger,
more comprehensive covid app...

------
nessup
I’m currently working on a community-run contact tracing app in the open:
[https://github.com/epicollect/epi-collect](https://github.com/epicollect/epi-
collect)

It is not a mobile app. You export your data from Google (thanks GDPR!), and
filter out personally identifiable data points before submitting. We also let
you know exactly who is about to use your donated data (we only allow academic
researchers to have access), and give you advance notice so you can delete it
if you don’t want your data to be used in a particular project.

We are MIT licensed and are figuring out how to make data donation safe via UX
and engineering. We need all the help we can get - even if it’s just feedback.
Feel reach out! Nessup@gmail.com

------
nailer
What is contact tracking? The article does not tell us.

~~~
smoe
Once you have an identified case, you trace who they have been in close
contact with recently and start contacting/testing/isolating them and trace it
further from there

E.g. In Switzerland this was done manually (by medical staff mostly i think)
in the very beginning, but they gave up very quickly on it because of lack of
resources.

------
DaniloDias
What the hell, I hate Bluetooth now?

~~~
k__
I didn't have any positive experiences with Bluetooth, it was always too
flaky, so I didn't even activate it for years now.

