Re: Privacy-protecting contact tracer for COVID-19? [was Re: A Moment of Silence #Foremembrance Today at 19:06 CET, 2:06 pm EDT, 11:06 am PDT, and Saturday at 2:06am in Hong Kong & Taipei]

On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 04:38, David Booth <david@dbooth.org> wrote:

> On 3/27/20 11:18 PM, Moses Ma wrote:
> > How do y’all feel about Singapore’s TraceTogether?
> > See:
> >
> https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-coronavirus-app-tracking-testing-no-shutdown-how-it-works-2020-3
> > Also:
> >
> https://www.tech.gov.sg/media/technews/tracetogether-behind-the-scenes-look-at-its-development-process
> >
> > How would you design a fully decentralized contact tracer?
>
> Or, more broadly: how would you design a privacy-protecting contact
> tracer?  This is urgently needed.
>
> Potential variations: 1. The app notifies you if it determines that you
> may have been exposed to COVID-19, without saying how it made that
> determination.  2. The app notifies healthcare officials that you may
> have been exposed, without telling them how it made that determination.
>

Off the top of my head:

1. Alice installs an app

The app has access to Alice's social graph of contacts

The app has access to Alice's which location Alice is at, at which time

The app has access to Alice's health status

If the health status changes (e.g. from negative to positive for Covid-19)
all the contacts in the social graph who have been within that location in
a 3 hour time period get a warning of differing threat level.

You would also have to model moving locations such a metro.

2. Optionally, health care agents / delegates can be part of the social
graph, and relay information to a pooled response system, or larger social
graph

This approach uses information hiding via trusted third parties.

A more complex version could use (I suspect) cryptographic blinding t
achieve a similar effect.  Something a bit like the dining cryptographers
problem [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dining_cryptographers_problem


>
> Ideas?
>
> David Booth
>
> >
> > Moses
> >
> >
> > -
> > *Moses Ma | FutureLab Consulting Inc*
> > moses.ma@futurelabconsulting.com | moses@ngenven.com
> > v +1.415.952.7888 <tel:+1.415.952.7888> | m +1.415.568.1068
> > <tel:+1.415.568.1068> | skype mosesma
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Mar 27, 2020 at 9:44 AM, <Ian Smith <mailto:ian@vidicode.pro>>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> proposing anti covid-19 protests to avoid saving lives is part of the
> >> ethos here? I wasn't aware that preventing the countermeasure to
> >> pandemic response was what this group was about
> >>
> >> On Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 6:10 AM Manu Sporny <msporny@digitalbazaar.com
> >> <mailto:msporny@digitalbazaar.com>> wrote:
> >>
> >>     On 3/27/20 8:41 AM, Daniel Hardman wrote:
> >>     > I will try to join you. Thank you for suggesting it.
> >>
> >>     I can't join, but thank you for the message and I'll observe the
> >>     moment
> >>     of silence, Christopher.
> >>
> >>     Visiting the memorial in person with people from this group was
> moving
> >>     and a reminder that we need to keep these painful lessons from the
> >>     past
> >>     in mind as we build out these systems.
> >>
> >>     > @Ian: I share your frustration with the surveillance economy,
> >>     but feel
> >>     > that your comment steps away from the ethos of our group.
> >>
> >>     I'd like to underscore Daniel's comment. Many of us are in this
> group
> >>     because we share in the frustration with the current surveillance
> >>     economy. That said, the frustration is no excuse to tear down what
> >>     others in the community are building. Your criticism was not
> >>     constructive, please refrain from doing that again.
> >>
> >>     We need to focus on helping each other build the world that we want
> to
> >>     see realized.
> >>
> >>     -- manu
> >>
> >>     --
> >>     Manu Sporny - https://www.linkedin.com/in/manusporny/
> >>     Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
> >>     blog: Veres One Decentralized Identifier Blockchain Launches
> >>     https://tinyurl.com/veres-one-launches
> >>
>
>