Digital Contact Tracing and Surveillance during COVID-19 (original) (raw)

Innocenti Research Briefs

Community engagement should occur as early as possible in the design, implementation and review of contact-tracing and surveillance technologies. Key message 7: A strong, transparent framework of system governance that seeks to foster and maintain trust within the community is critical. It must include clearly accessible mechanisms that individuals and communities can use to identify and report concerns and incidents as they arise, and to receive feedback on the subsequent responses. Digital contact tracing and surveillance during COVID-19-General and Child-specific Ethical Issues Innocenti Working Paper 2020-01 Key message 10: Wherever possible, informed consent should be factored into the design of digital contact-tracing or surveillance systems. Where this is not possible to uphold in practice, this should be explicitly acknowledged in the design, which should be supported by strong and transparent governance and accountability mechanisms. Key message 11: Access and equity should be explicitly considered in the design and use of technologies for digital contact tracing and public health surveillance. Clear strategies for equitable public health outcomes should be in place where digital solutions are likely to disproportionately (and potentially negatively) affect marginalized communities. Individuals should not be penalized for lacking access to relevant technologies for the purposes of contact tracing or surveillance. In such instances, mixed approaches combining manual and digital contact-tracing services should be used. Key message 12: Individuals should not be compelled to upload or install relevant applications or systems unless warranted by legitimacy, necessity and proportionality tests. In the absence of robust evidence on the efficacy of applications/systems, and in the absence of their widespread adoption, these standards are currently unlikely to be met. Digital contact tracing and surveillance during COVID-19-General and Child-specific Ethical Issues Innocenti Working Paper 2020-01 Prevention of harms across the data cycle Key message 13: Data rights and protections should be upheld to the fullest extent possible. If there is any suspension or relaxation of these as a result of the introduction of digital contact-tracing or surveillance measures, such a change must be: a) clearly articulated, with justification given for the need for the change b) considered in relation to the impacts on vulnerable groups and appropriate mitigation strategies put in place c) time-bound, with the full provisions restored as soon as possible. Key message 14: Prior to any centralized collection of data for the explicit purpose of contact tracing or public health surveillance, or as soon as reasonably practicable, clear terms should be established within relevant regulations in regard to the duration of storage and timing of the destruction of the data. Such terms should be in place for manual systems and should be reviewed and adapted for any new digital/technology-based system.