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Article
Real-time privacy preserving framework for Covid-19 contact tracing
Computers, Materials and Continua
  • Akashdeep Bhardwaj, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies
  • Ahmed A. Mohamed, Majmaah University
  • Manoj Kumar, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies
  • Mohammed Alshehri, Majmaah University
  • Ahed Abugabah, Zayed University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract

The recent unprecedented threat from COVID-19 and past epidemics, such as SARS, AIDS, and Ebola, has affected millions of people in multiple countries. Countries have shut their borders, and their nationals have been advised to self-quarantine. The variety of responses to the pandemic has given rise to data privacy concerns. Infection prevention and control strategies as well as disease control measures, especially real-time contact tracing for COVID-19, require the identification of people exposed to COVID-19. Such tracing frameworks use mobile apps and geolocations to trace individuals. However, while the motive may be well intended, the limitations and security issues associated with using such a technology are a serious cause of concern. There are growing concerns regarding the privacy of an individual's location and personal identifiable information (PII) being shared with governments and/or health agencies. This study presents a real-time, trust-based contact-tracing framework that operates without the use of an individual's PII, location sensing, or gathering GPS logs. The focus of the proposed contact tracing framework is to ensure real-time privacy using the Bluetooth range of individuals to determine others within the range. The research validates the trust-based framework using Bluetooth as practical and privacy-aware. Using our proposed methodology, personal information, health logs, and location data will be secure and not abused. This research analyzes 100,000 tracing dataset records from 150 mobile devices to identify infected users and active users.

Publisher
Computers, Materials and Continua (Tech Science Press)
Disciplines
Keywords
  • Bluetooth,
  • Contact tracing,
  • Covid,
  • Epidemic,
  • Mobile apps,
  • Privacy
Scopus ID

85114556542

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Indexed in Scopus
Yes
Open Access
Yes
Open Access Type
Hybrid: This publication is openly available in a subscription-based journal/series
Citation Information
Akashdeep Bhardwaj, Ahmed A. Mohamed, Manoj Kumar, Mohammed Alshehri, et al.. "Real-time privacy preserving framework for Covid-19 contact tracing" Computers, Materials and Continua Vol. 70 (2021) p. 1017 - 1032 ISSN: <p><a href="https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/issn/1546-2218" target="_blank">1546-2218</a></p>
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ahed-abugabah/26/