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In this paper we discuss ethical implications of the use of mobile phone apps in the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing is a well-established feature of public health practice during infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics. However, the high proportion of pre-symptomatic transmission in COVID-19 means that standard contact tracing methods are too slow to stop the progression of infection through the population. To address this problem, many countries around the world have deployed or are developing mobile phone apps capable of supporting instantaneous contact tracing. Informed by the on-going mapping of 'proximity events' these apps are intended both to inform public health policy and to provide alerts to individuals who have been in contact with a person with the infection. The proposed use of mobile phone data for 'intelligent physical distancing' in such contexts raises a number of important ethical questions. In our paper, we outline some ethical considerations that need to be addressed in any deployment of this kind of approach as part of a multidimensional public health response. We also, briefly, explore the implications for its use in future infectious disease outbreaks.

Original publication

DOI

10.1136/medethics-2020-106314

Type

Journal article

Journal

Journal of medical ethics

Publication Date

07/2020

Volume

46

Pages

427 - 431

Addresses

Wellcome Centre for Ethics and the Humanities and Ethox Centre,The Ethox Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK michael.parker@ethox.ox.ac.uk.

Keywords

Humans, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Contact Tracing, Trust, Communicable Disease Control, Privacy, Freedom, Bioethical Issues, Pandemics, Mobile Applications, Betacoronavirus, Cell Phone