COVIDFREE App: The User-Enabling Contact Prevention Application

Edgard Musafiri Mimo, Troy McDaniel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Governments all over the world are considering employing mobile contact tracing applications to automatically manage, trace, and investigate recent interactions of newly tested COVID-19 infected individuals. The prospective use of such applications has produced several debates surrounding confidentiality, security, data supervision, closeness approximation algorithms, and cyber-attack susceptibility. This paper discusses these concerns in the context of a novel smartphone application architecture, proposed here, that gives users more control and privacy during contact tracing. The proposed application is termed COVIDFREE App, which is aimed at enhancing users' situational awareness through communication of safe and unsafe locations. An overview of the app's architectural design and functionality are presented, including a newly developed Overall Risk Density Safety Factor calculation inspired by COVID-19 density risks and factors of users based on health requirements and several customizable user-specific scenarios. Finally, the paper outlines the benefit to funding and developing contact tracing apps, such as the COVIDFRE App, and discusses advantages of such applications including citizen awareness, relief, and preparedness.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, ISTAS 2020
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages452-456
Number of pages5
ISBN (Electronic)9781665415071
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 12 2020
Event2020 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, ISTAS 2020 - Virtual, Tempe, United States
Duration: Nov 12 2020Nov 15 2020

Publication series

NameInternational Symposium on Technology and Society, Proceedings
Volume2020-November

Conference

Conference2020 IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society, ISTAS 2020
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Tempe
Period11/12/2011/15/20

Keywords

  • contact tracing
  • COVID-l9
  • COVIDFREE App
  • location tracking
  • location-based services
  • social distancing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering
  • General Social Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'COVIDFREE App: The User-Enabling Contact Prevention Application'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this