In a world rife with paranoia and where the pandemic is at its peak, the Globe and Mail have reported that “The struggle to maintain COVID-19 contact tracing is real”.
At a time where we are being tracked by all sorts of devices in addition to the blurring line of personal privacy, Facedrive Health’s – TraceSCAN stands out as the epitome of innovative digital contact tracing technology that has nothing to do with TRACKING while completely fulfilling its function. Privacy and security are the core attributes in building the very first digital contact tracing solution – TraceSCAN.
Tracescan devices were fabricated emphasizing user privacy & security in mind, as we know how important they are, it was steeped in the notion of contact tracing without compromising privacy or having any personal information of the user shared— as well as making it as simple, safe, and cost-efficient as possible. Talking about privacy, the data the wearable device collects is very specific, that is only:
- The Date of Interaction
- The Time of Interaction
- The Serial number of device interaction
It won’t, however, collect anything on the user’s location. In addition to not collecting any personal data of the user, all data collected on the device is encrypted, and it gets deleted after each upload (which in itself requires positive authentication) or 21 days, whichever comes first.
How TraceScan Works?
Each contact tracing Bluetooth wearable is allotted with a unique ID which can turn on and off automatically upon entry or exit to a premise (if desired). The device communicates with all other Bluetooth devices it encounters nearby, swapping specific information such as particulars on the time and distance relating to an interaction.
The data then is collected by the onsite Bluetooth gateway permitting identification of high-risk areas within a specific environment. It is then sent securely to Microsoft’s Azure (a cloud computing service for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft-managed data centers) cloud for health/HR administrators, who are the only people who have access to identify the exposed individuals and further review the case. Once the affected people are notified about the COVID-19 exposure from an infected individual, a company can quickly identify potentially exposed individuals using the data from the contact tracing wearables.
By making use of the Microsoft Azure cloud, the user’s name gets mapped to a wearable serial number. Azure is about as secure as it gets, as it has more certifications than any other cloud provider. Microsoft itself employs more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to keeping data private and safe, and it invests more than USD 1 billion annually in cybersecurity research and development.
As an example of the solution’s potency in practice, when Air Canada (an early adopter of TraceSCAN) had a privacy impact assessment and threat risk assessment conducted in September of 2020, the report found TraceSCAN to be compliant with the 10 principles of PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act), and penetration testing showed no medium or high risks. There had also been no personal information stored on the device, sync stations, or online dashboard.
About Facedrive:
Facedrive is a multi-faceted “people-and-planet first” platform offering socially responsible services to local communities with a strong commitment to doing business fairly, equitably, and sustainably. Facedrive Rideshare was the first to offer green transportation solutions in the TaaS space, planting thousands of trees and giving users a choice between electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and conventional vehicles. Facedrive Marketplace offers curated merchandise created from sustainably sourced materials. Facedrive Foods offers contactless deliveries of healthy foods right to consumers’ doorsteps. Facedrive Health develops innovative technological solutions to the most acute health challenges of the day. Facedrive is changing the ridesharing, food delivery, e-commerce, and health tech narratives for the better, for everyone. Facedrive is currently operational in the following cities and municipalities of Ontario: The Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Orillia, and Ottawa.