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Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era

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  • Viktoriia Shubina

    (Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, 33720 Tampere, Finland
    Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Splaiul Independenței 313, 060042 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Sylvia Holcer

    (Institute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain
    Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Brno University of Technology, Technická 3058/10, 616 00 Brno, Czechia)

  • Michael Gould

    (Institute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain)

  • Elena Simona Lohan

    (Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, 33720 Tampere, Finland)

Abstract

Some of the recent developments in data science for worldwide disease control have involved research of large-scale feasibility and usefulness of digital contact tracing, user location tracking, and proximity detection on users’ mobile devices or wearables. A centralized solution relying on collecting and storing user traces and location information on a central server can provide more accurate and timely actions than a decentralized solution in combating viral outbreaks, such as COVID-19. However, centralized solutions are more prone to privacy breaches and privacy attacks by malevolent third parties than decentralized solutions, storing the information in a distributed manner among wireless networks. Thus, it is of timely relevance to identify and summarize the existing privacy-preserving solutions, focusing on decentralized methods, and analyzing them in the context of mobile device-based localization and tracking, contact tracing, and proximity detection. Wearables and other mobile Internet of Things devices are of particular interest in our study, as not only privacy, but also energy-efficiency, targets are becoming more and more critical to the end-users. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of user location-tracking, proximity-detection, and digital contact-tracing solutions in the literature from the past two decades, analyses their advantages and drawbacks concerning centralized and decentralized solutions, and presents the authors’ thoughts on future research directions in this timely research field.

Suggested Citation

  • Viktoriia Shubina & Sylvia Holcer & Michael Gould & Elena Simona Lohan, 2020. "Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era," Data, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-40, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jdataj:v:5:y:2020:i:4:p:87-:d:418062
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Saheb, Tahereh & Sabour, Elham & Qanbary, Fatimah & Saheb, Tayebeh, 2022. "Delineating privacy aspects of COVID tracing applications embedded with proximity measurement technologies & digital technologies," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).

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