| Full text | |
| Author(s): |
da Silva, Mikaella F.
;
Santos, Bruno P.
;
Rettore, Paulo H. L.
;
Mota, Vinicius F. S.
Total Authors: 4
|
| Document type: | Journal article |
| Source: | JOURNAL OF INTERNET SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS; v. 15, n. 1, p. 14-pg., 2024-01-01. |
| Abstract | |
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, using contact-tracking apps and measures such as social isolation and mask-wearing has emerged as an efficient strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus. Nonetheless, these apps have raised privacy concerns. This paper introduces a technique for enhancing Privacy in contact-tracing systems while preserving the data for research purposes. The contact-tracing system employs a unique identifier signed with a key associated with the application and the user. In this system, mobile devices serve as sensors sending beacons, actively detecting nearby devices, and transmitting the identifiers of surrounding contacts to a cloud-based platform. When a user reports a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, a dedicated web service identifies and tracks the identifiers associated with at-risk contacts. The system uses a topic-based publish-subscribe broker, and each identifier represents an individual topic to abstract contact communication and disseminate alert messages. To assess the system's efficacy, we conducted a use case with twenty volunteers using the mobile application for two weeks, representing a small university campus. The quantitative results of the use case demonstrated the system's capability of analyzing potential virus transmission and observing user's social interactions while maintaining their anonymity. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 23/00148-0 - SocialNet: social sensing to leverage new technologies and applications for the development of urban societies |
| Grantee: | Thiago Henrique Silva |
| Support Opportunities: | Regular Research Grants |
| FAPESP's process: | 20/05182-3 - PORVIR-5G: programability, orchestration and virtualization in 5G networks |
| Grantee: | José Marcos Silva Nogueira |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Projects - Thematic Grants |