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Key facts:
The government will know the data and geographic location of each user at all times.The app Care for already has 1.5 million users, but extend to the manifestations of rejection.In Argentina, citizens are manifesting their concern, not only for the advancement of the coronavirus (COVID-19), but also for the privacy. This from the past may 8, the president, Alberto Fernandez, said that those who return to their jobs, at the end of the quarantine, shall comply with the requirements set forth in the platform take Care of.The application (app) to take Care of, created by the Secretariat of Public Innovation, together with the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Nation, should be downloaded in the smart phones of the people who go to work outside of their homes. The measure is generating concern in the population about the use that the government could give the personal data to which you have access.The app, which is available for iPhone and Android, has as main function to investigate the symptoms that can manifest the citizens, in order to trace patients with coronavirus from the geolocation. According to publications in local media, the government will know the geographical location of each user at all times, along with their health data —provided by each person. You can also share some data with social networks, like Facebook.
Dangerous data in the wrong hands
Although the app already has over 1.5 million users, the manifestations of rejection of the argentines have spread by social networks. Many fear that the app may have implications sinister and accords greater power to the State over the citizens, taking into account that violates several articles of the Argentine Constitution, as reported by the lawyer Alexander Fargosi.”We agree that technology can be very useful in this phase of the pandemic to track potential contacts of the infected, and, if appropriate, to isolate them. We are concerned, however, the use that the Government can give this huge amount of data on the citizens they will have access,” expressed through a press release, regarding the opponents about the use of citizens ‘ data.The computer expert Javier Smaldone calls for the argentine Government to publish the source code, which is the version of the app that developers will be able to describe, to understand and verify what is it that makes, does and how it does it. The developer also asks that you delete the entire function that is not critical, such as surveillance, tracking, and also there is mandatory.
There is a clause in the terms and conditions that one agrees to when you installed it (the app) that says that one is forbidden to try to determine what the application does and what we know that makes. As some of us have violated these terms and conditions exposing ourselves —and because the president himself acknowledged this in a press conference on the 10th of April, I can say that this application serves to track the physical location of the people. But it is not clear who precisely will be able to access this information, nor for how long you are going to collect this information, or what it will do with this information once you pass this exceptional situation.Javier Smaldone, an expert in computer security.
What solution or problem of privacy?
The self-evaluation through the app take Care of measuring the body temperature of the user, as a first step. Then, you must answer a series of questions related to other symptoms linked with the COVID-19, as the loss of the senses of taste and smell, sore throat, and difficulty breathing. Finally, the user should report if you have diabetes, cancer, renal diseases, cardiology or respiratory.After closing the statement, the application establishes if the individual has symptoms related to the COVID-19. If the answer is negative, issues a certificate to go to work for 14 days, although recommended to repeat the examination every 48 hours. If the reply is positive the application details the measures of care to take, and set a countdown of isolation of 14 days.In Argentina and in other countries of the world, population and experts expressed concern over the app that you sacrifice the privacy for tracking cases of COVID-19. Source: DragonImages/ Envato Elements. Argentina is not the only country to implement technology for the tracking of contacts COVID-19, nor is it the only one where there is a concern about privacy. China, EE. UU., Singapore, Hong Kong and several european countries have developed similar applications. Some public health experts indicate that these applications may help control the outbreaks of the virus. However, experts on privacy warn of the need to limit and protect the data collected in order to avoid someone getting them and can market them later.In Spain, for example, the multinational company of professional services of consulting, auditing and legal advice, PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers), announced that it will implement a passport health, registered in a blockchain, to facilitate reentry to the work of the employees, for the duration of the alert by the coronavirus.The solution is a tool that would be based on a network blockchain private and would allow to enter and view, in real time, the results of the test used to detect the presence of the virus. The tracing of contacts is the process to track and isolate people who may have been exposed to an infectious disease after someone tests positive. Today there are multiple apps to do the tracking, but very few are based in the privacy.The Foundation Zcash developed the application of free and open source that is already available for its implementation. The foundation has been working on this project as part of the group of coalition TCN —the number of temporary contact for its acronym in English), formed by collaborators from all over the world who have come together with the idea of designing, implementing, and deploying the follow-up of contacts without surveillance and always preserving the data of the users.