Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33999829›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2021

Privacy-Oriented Technique for COVID-19 Contact Tracing (PROTECT) Using Homomorphic Encryption: Design and Development Study.

Yongdae An, Seungmyung Lee, Seungwoo Jung, Howard Park, Yongsoo Song, Taehoon Ko

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
6.0field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Internet of Things Based Contact Tracing Systems.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Yongdae AnDesilo Inc, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0002-3516-8677
Seungmyung LeeDesilo Inc, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0003-4682-3216
Seungwoo JungDesilo Inc, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0002-2504-6780
Howard ParkDesilo Inc, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0003-0384-8739
Yongsoo Song *Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0002-0496-9789
Taehoon Ko *Department of Medical Informatics, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea.ORCID 0000-0002-4045-0036
Seoul National University · KRCatholic University of Korea · KR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundVarious techniques are used to support contact tracing, which has been shown to be highly effective against the COVID-19 pandemic. To apply the technology, either quarantine authorities should provide the location history of patients with COVID-19, or all users should provide their own location history. This inevitably exposes either the patient's location history or the personal location history of other users. Thus, a privacy issue arises where the public good (via information release) comes in conflict with privacy exposure risks.

objectiveThe objective of this study is to develop an effective contact tracing system that does not expose the location information of the patient with COVID-19 to other users of the system, or the location information of the users to the quarantine authorities.

methodsWe propose a new protocol called PRivacy Oriented Technique for Epidemic Contact Tracing (PROTECT) that securely shares location information of patients with users by using the Brakerski/Fan-Vercauteren homomorphic encryption scheme, along with a new, secure proximity computation method.

resultsWe developed a mobile app for the end-user and a web service for the quarantine authorities by applying the proposed method, and we verified their effectiveness. The proposed app and web service compute the existence of intersections between the encrypted location history of patients with COVID-19 released by the quarantine authorities and that of the user saved on the user's local device. We also found that this contact tracing smartphone app can identify whether the user has been in contact with such patients within a reasonable time.

conclusionsThis newly developed method for contact tracing shares location information by using homomorphic encryption, without exposing the location information of patients with COVID-19 and other users. Homomorphic encryption is challenging to apply to practical issues despite its high security value. In this study, however, we have designed a system using the Brakerski/Fan-Vercauteren scheme that is applicable to a reasonable size and developed it to an operable format. The developed app and web service can help contact tracing for not only the COVID-19 pandemic but also other epidemics.

Indexed as

Computer SecurityPatient RightsPrivacyBiomedical TechnologyConfidentialityContact TracingCOVID-19HumansMobile ApplicationsPandemicsQuarantineSARS-CoV-2COVID-19GPS datahomomorphic encryptionmobile applicationprivacy-preserving contact tracingPROTECT protocolweb service

Identifiers

PMID33999829
PMCPMC8276784
OpenAlexW3158960496

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.