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  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

Coronavirus contact-tracing apps: can they slow the spread of COVID-19?

Google, Apple and researchers partner to build more secure and effective tools, but poor adoption could blunt efficacy.
  1. Mark Zastrow

    1. Mark Zastrow is a writer based in Seoul, South Korea.

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As the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic continues, much of the world is pinning its hopes of easing lockdowns on being able to quickly identify people who might have been exposed to the virus. But such ‘contact tracing’ is generally a laborious, slow process that relies on in-person interviews and detective work. Enter the smartphone: a new breed of app aims to automate the process of retracing a person’s movements to find people they might have infected — and possibly notify those people at the earliest possible stage.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01514-2

References

  1. Fraser, C. et al. Preprint at GitHub https://go.nature.com/2x2czk9 (2020).

  2. Zhang, B., Kreps, S. & McMurry, N. Preprint at OSF Preprints https://osf.io/9wz3y (2020).

  3. Bay, J. et al. BlueTrace: A privacy-preserving protocol for community-driven contact tracing across borders; available at https://go.nature.com/2wwcwg4 (2020).

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