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COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is the biggest global economic and health challenge of the century. Its effect and impact are still evolving, with deaths estimated to reach 40 million if unchecked. One effective and complementary strategy to slow the spread and reduce the imp...

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Autores principales: Ekong, Iniobong, Chukwu, Emeka, Chukwu, Martha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7187764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32310817
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19139
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author Ekong, Iniobong
Chukwu, Emeka
Chukwu, Martha
author_facet Ekong, Iniobong
Chukwu, Emeka
Chukwu, Martha
author_sort Ekong, Iniobong
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is the biggest global economic and health challenge of the century. Its effect and impact are still evolving, with deaths estimated to reach 40 million if unchecked. One effective and complementary strategy to slow the spread and reduce the impact is to trace the primary and secondary contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases using contact tracing technology. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to survey strategies for digital contact tracing for the COVID-19 pandemic and to present how using mobile positioning data conforms with Nigeria’s data privacy regulations. METHODS: We conducted an exploratory review of current measures for COVID-19 contact tracing implemented around the world. We then analyzed how countries are using mobile positioning data technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We made recommendations on how Nigeria can adopt this approach while adhering to the guidelines provided by the National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). RESULTS: Despite the potential of digital contact tracing, it always conflicts with patient data privacy regulations. We found that Nigeria’s response complies with the NDPR, and that it is possible to leverage call detail records to complement current strategies within the NDPR. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that mobile position data contact tracing is important for epidemic control as long as it conforms to relevant data privacy regulations. Implementation guidelines will limit data misuse.
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spelling pubmed-71877642020-05-01 COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria Ekong, Iniobong Chukwu, Emeka Chukwu, Martha JMIR Mhealth Uhealth Original Paper BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is the biggest global economic and health challenge of the century. Its effect and impact are still evolving, with deaths estimated to reach 40 million if unchecked. One effective and complementary strategy to slow the spread and reduce the impact is to trace the primary and secondary contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases using contact tracing technology. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this paper is to survey strategies for digital contact tracing for the COVID-19 pandemic and to present how using mobile positioning data conforms with Nigeria’s data privacy regulations. METHODS: We conducted an exploratory review of current measures for COVID-19 contact tracing implemented around the world. We then analyzed how countries are using mobile positioning data technology to reduce the spread of COVID-19. We made recommendations on how Nigeria can adopt this approach while adhering to the guidelines provided by the National Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). RESULTS: Despite the potential of digital contact tracing, it always conflicts with patient data privacy regulations. We found that Nigeria’s response complies with the NDPR, and that it is possible to leverage call detail records to complement current strategies within the NDPR. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that mobile position data contact tracing is important for epidemic control as long as it conforms to relevant data privacy regulations. Implementation guidelines will limit data misuse. JMIR Publications 2020-04-27 /pmc/articles/PMC7187764/ /pubmed/32310817 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19139 Text en ©Iniobong Ekong, Emeka Chukwu, Martha Chukwu. Originally published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth (http://mhealth.jmir.org), 27.04.2020. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mHealth and uHealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Ekong, Iniobong
Chukwu, Emeka
Chukwu, Martha
COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title_full COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title_fullStr COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title_short COVID-19 Mobile Positioning Data Contact Tracing and Patient Privacy Regulations: Exploratory Search of Global Response Strategies and the Use of Digital Tools in Nigeria
title_sort covid-19 mobile positioning data contact tracing and patient privacy regulations: exploratory search of global response strategies and the use of digital tools in nigeria
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7187764/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32310817
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/19139
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