Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing

Not to be confused with Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing.
Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing
Developed by
IntroducedApril 4, 2020 (2020-04-04)[2]
IndustryDigital contact tracing
Compatible hardwareAndroid & iOS smartphones
Physical range~10 m (33 ft)[3]
Websitehttps://github.com/DP-3T/documents

Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-3T, stylized as dp3t) is an open protocol developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to facilitate digital contact tracing of infected participants.[4][5] The protocol, like competing protocol Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), uses Bluetooth Low Energy to track and log encounters with other users.[6][7] The protocols differ in their reporting mechanism, with PEPP-PT requiring clients to upload contact logs to a central reporting server, whereas with DP-3T, the central reporting server never has access to contact logs nor is it responsible for processing and informing clients of contact.[1] Because contact logs are never transmitted to third parties, it has major privacy benefits over the PEPP-PT approach;[8][9] however, this comes at the cost of requiring more computing power on the client side to process infection reports.[10]

The Apple/Google Exposure Notification project is based on similar principles as the DP-3T protocol, and supports a variant of it since May 2020.[11][12][13] Huawei added a similar implementation of DP-3T to its Huawei Mobile Services APIs known as "Contact Shield" in June 2020.[14]

The DP-3T SDK and calibration apps intend to support the Apple/Google API as soon as it is released to iOS and Android devices.[15][16]

On the 21 April 2020, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health announced that the Swiss national coronavirus contact tracing app will be based on DP-3T.[17] On the 22 April 2020, the Austrian Red Cross, leading on the national digital contact tracing app, announced its migration to the approach of DP-3T.[18] Estonia also confirmed that their app would be based on DP-3T.[19] On April 28, 2020, it was announced that Finland was piloting a version of DP-3T called "Ketju".[20] In Germany, a national app is being built upon DP-3T by SAP SE and Deutsche Telekom alongside CISPA, one of the organisations that authored the protocol.[21] As of September 30, 2020, contact tracing apps using DP-3T are available in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland.[22]

  1. ^ a b "DP-3T whitepaper" (PDF). GitHub. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Initial commit". GitHub. 4 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  3. ^ Sponås, Jon Gunnar. "Things You Should Know About Bluetooth Range". blog.nordicsemi.com. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Rift Opens Over European Coronavirus Contact Tracing Apps". The New York Times. Reuters. 20 April 2020. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  5. ^ Troncoso, Carmela; Bogdanov, Dan; Bugnion, Edouard; Chatel, Sylvain; Cremers, Cas; Gürses, Seda; Hubaux, Jean-Pierre; Jackson, Dennis; Larus, James R.; Lueks, Wouter; Oliveira, Rui; Payer, Mathias; Preneel, Bart; Pyrgelis, Apostolos; Salathé, Marcel (19 August 2022). "Deploying decentralized, privacy-preserving proximity tracing". Communications of the ACM. 65 (9): 48–57. doi:10.1145/3524107. hdl:1822/90764. ISSN 0001-0782.
  6. ^ Jason Bay, Joel Kek, Alvin Tan, Chai Sheng Hau, Lai Yongquan, Janice Tan, Tang Anh Quy. "BlueTrace: A privacy-preserving protocol for community-driven contact tracing across borders" (PDF). Government Technology Agency. Retrieved 12 April 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Is Apple and Google's Covid-19 Contact Tracing a Privacy Risk?". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
  8. ^ "Controversy around privacy splits Europe's push to build COVID-19 contact-tracing apps". Fortune. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  9. ^ "Rift opens over European coronavirus contact tracing apps". Reuters. 20 April 2020. Archived from the original on 21 April 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  10. ^ "DP-3T 3 page brief" (PDF). GitHub. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Apple and Google update joint coronavirus tracing tech to improve user privacy and developer flexibility". TechCrunch. 24 April 2020. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  12. ^ Farr, Christina (28 April 2020). "How a handful of Apple and Google employees came together to help health officials trace coronavirus". CNBC. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  13. ^ "Coronalert: A Distributed Privacy-Friendly Contact Tracing App for Belgium" (PDF). kuleuven.be. 5 August 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  14. ^ "Huawei releases its "Contact Shield" API for COVID-19 contact tracing". xda-developers. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 7 October 2020.
  15. ^ "DP3T-SDK for iOS". GitHub. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  16. ^ "DP3T-SDK for Android". GitHub. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  17. ^ swissinfo.ch, S. W. I.; Corporation, a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting. "Contact tracing app could be launched in Switzerland within weeks". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  18. ^ "Stopp Corona-App: Weiterentwicklung mit Hilfe der Zivilgesellschaft". OTS.at (in German). Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  19. ^ "How do you trace Covid-19 while respecting privacy?". e-Estonia. 24 April 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2020.
  20. ^ "Vaasa Central Hospital pilots the Ketju application for helping in the identification of coronavirus exposures". Sitra. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  21. ^ "Corona-Tracking: Helmholtz-Zentrum erwartet Start der Corona-App in den nächsten Wochen". www.handelsblatt.com (in German). Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  22. ^ "FAQ - Does Coronalert also work abroad?". Coronalert. Retrieved 30 September 2020.