# Phone-Based Contact Tracing, Privacy, and Proximity Detection: Thoughts and Links

DevFeed: [Phone-Based Contact Tracing, Privacy, and Proximity Detection: Thoughts and Links](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/tracing-app-thoughts-and-links-36565.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://berthub.eu/articles/posts/tracing-app-thoughts-and-links/>)

Published: 2020-04-11T11:46:27Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Bert Hubert's writings](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/bert-hubert-s-writings.md>)

Topics: [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>), [Protocol (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/protocol.md>), [Localization (l10n)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/localization.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>)

Tags: [app](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app.md>), [decentralized](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/decentralized.md>), [privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/privacy.md>), [protocol](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/protocol.md>), [public-health](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/public-health.md>), [tracing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tracing.md>)

## AI overview

The article considers whether phone apps and internet-connected devices could support automated COVID-19 contact tracing while preserving privacy. It discusses the limits of GPS, GNSS, Wi-Fi, and phone-location data for measuring close proximity, then reviews decentralized proposals such as DP-3T, CEN/TCN, and the Apple/Google protocol.

## Source excerpt

As many countries are now managing to drive down their COVID-19 epidemic, thoughts are turning to how to manage the outbreak beyond the "lockdown". The restrictions we live under now do appear to work, but for multiple reasons, they'll be hard to maintain. When the epidemic was small, it was possible to trace every new infection and isolate potential new cases. This did buy time, but for most countries, "the cat was out the bag already".