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Digital Planet: Privacy concerns over contact tracing apps

Factual: Science & Nature

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28/04/2020 GMT

Privacy concerns over contact tracing apps

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Privacy concerns over contact tracing apps

Can coronavirus contact tracing apps be made without revealing our personal data?

COVID-19 contact tracing apps and privacy concerns.  Also making computers intuitive and tech to fight the locust swarms – an update.

Contact tracing is an essential part of controlling the Coronavirus pandemic but how should this data be collected and shared?  In previous pandemics the tech wasn’t advanced enough to be used widely, but now country by country new contact tracing apps are appearing.  But what about our privacy, should our personal health information be so easily available and potentially be unsecure?  Some of the tech giants have even developed new protocols to anonymise our data – but not all governments think this will work?  Journalist Timandra Harkness tells us what types of apps are being used where and about the tech behind them.

Making computers intuitive
Is it possible to make computers intuitive like us?  That’s a question that Professor Mateja Jamnik from Cambridge University is trying to answer by building computational models that capture human informal reasoning – essentially trying to humanise computer thinking.  Gareth Mitchell and Bill Thompson visited Professor Jamnik in Cambridge before the lockdown.

Tech to tackle locust storms update
Gareth speaks to Senior Locust Forecasting Officer Keith Cressman to find out if any of the tech that was being deployed to try and control the locust storms in the Horn of Arica and the Indian Subcontinent is working.  

The programme is presented by Gareth Mitchell with expert commentary from Bill Thompson.

The Studio Manager is Duncan Hannant.




(Image: Covid-19 app on smartphone software in a crowd of people with Bluetooth. Credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus)                                         


Producer: Ania Lichtarowicz

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