Tecnalia launches the first contact tracing system that guarantees privacy to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Automated contact tracing, as a necessary complement to manual contact tracing, is currently positioned as the most efficient way to prevent the spread of COVID-19, as the prestigious journal Science already announced in an article published on March 31. Knowing where each new positive case has been and with whom would provide contact tracing professionals with key information to break the chain of transmission. The challenge facing contact tracing systems based on systems rather than manual processes is ensuring data privacy and control so that their implementation in society is viable.

Therefore, the TECNALIA research and development center, together with Ibermática, a company specializing in Information Technology, is developing the first early exposure detection system that guarantees privacy, with the aim of flattening the infection curve by tracing positive cases in society, as well as preventing future outbreaks. This is a pioneering system in Spain, and testing using mobile phones is already underway.

“These types of tools are undoubtedly more effective than memory and manual processes. We can’t remember who we sat next to on the subway, for example, but these applications can. We need to look for automated, effective tools that also guarantee people’s privacy and implement them in society as soon as possible,” says Óscar Lage, Head of Cybersecurity at TECNALIA.

Currently, exposure control is carried out manually using World Health Organization procedures, but the current situation requires automated systems to help control the spread of the virus. Thus, the system being developed by TECNALIA and Ibermática is based on the DP-3T protocol, which allows for early detection of exposure to the infection and, therefore, improves the efficiency of identifying asymptomatic people who need to be tested, while also fully maintaining the privacy of contacts and using it exclusively to determine cases of exposure to COVID-19. In April, giants Apple and Google joined the implementation of the DP-3T protocol within their smartphone operating systems, which provided a significant boost to its expansion as an exposure detection system based on strict privacy criteria.

The DP-3T protocol is a European initiative led by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), currently in the development phase, supported by centers such as TECNALIA, which began testing at the center this week. The results will be made available to the Basque Government’s Department of Economic Development and Infrastructure for a second phase of extension to companies participating in the Business Resumption Project (PRAP-Euskadi). This will advance its scalability and widespread use, always supporting entities that must carry out tracing activities.

The key: cryptography and decentralized information

This technology guarantees personal privacy through intensive use of cryptography and the decentralization of information, as it does not reveal user-related information to any central server, thus preventing such data from being exploited. To this end, the system proposed by TECNALIA and Ibermática will store and process all information on the users’ own devices. Furthermore, it does not save the user’s GPS location, to ensure privacy.

The system is based on the use of mobile Bluetooth, and new, more comfortable wearable formats, such as bracelets, are being explored. Initially, it will be a mobile app for Android, with an iOS version planned. Users only need to have the system active, with the ability to activate and deactivate monitoring at will. If they test positive for the disease, they must report their infection through the app so that users who have been exposed to that person can immediately isolate themselves and contact health authorities to assess whether they have been infected by that at-risk contact. There will also be a verification code so that users cannot claim to be infected if they are not.

In any case, they are already working on developing other challenges for this system, such as allowing users, always on a voluntary basis, to share aggregated information from their devices for analysis by researchers. Another objective is to design and implement an interoperability protocol with other similar initiatives so that users are protected in their contacts regardless of the application each person uses.

TECNALIA and Ibermática are developing this technology within the “Optimization of the Diagnostic and Containment System” (OptiDiC) project, within the framework of the COVID-19 emergency measures of the Basque Government’s Department of Economic Development and Infrastructure, at the level of research support actions.