EPIdig: the Digital Personal Protective Equipment for workers against COVID-19

EPIdig: contact tracking system that guarantees personal data privacy to fight COVID-19 propagation

TECNALIA has implemented, together with IBERMÁTICA, a pioneering system in Spain to stop the spread of COVID-19. Since June it is available to more than 6000 users. This system guarantees people’s privacy, not requiring to reveal any information related to users to any central server. The intervention of prevention services against exposure to SARS-CoV-2, in the field of enterprises, is crucial. They must study and manage cases and contacts that have occurred in the company, as well as collaborate with health authorities in the early detection of all cases compatible with COVID-19 to control transmission.

Currently, the exposure to the disease is monitored manually through procedures developed by the World Health Organization, but the current situation requires automated systems that help to control the spread of the virus. Thus, EPIDIG is based on the DP-3T protocol. This protocol guarantees the privacy of individuals, thanks to an intensive use of cryptography and the decentralization of information, not revealing information related to users to any central server and thus avoiding that such data may be misused. To this end, the system proposed by TECNALIA and IBERMÁTICA will store and process all the information on the users’ own devices. Furthermore, it does not store the user’s GPS location, to guarantee privacy, as the system is based on the use of the mobile phone’s Bluetooth.