The Atlanta Lawyer June/July 2020 Vol. 19, No. 1 | Page 20

IN THE PROFESSION Privacy and Contact Tracing Modern Privacy Standards in the Age of a Pandemic: How Businesses Can be Prepared STEPHEN V. BUSH Bodker, Ramsey, Andrews, Winograd & Wildstein, PC [email protected] HEATHER K. PECK PrimeRevenue, Inc. [email protected] We have all heard the term, but what exactly is contact tracing? In its simplest terms, contact tracing is the process of tracking the spread of a virus, finding new cases of infections by examining a person’s close contacts, and informing those contacts, who may not already be infected, to take necessary precautions with the intent of getting ahead of the virus’ spread. This is accomplished through the identification, monitoring, and support of individuals (contacts) who have been exposed to a patient with a communicable disease. Traditionally, public health staff manually work with patients to generate a list of everyone with whom s/he has had a close contact during the time when they may have been infectious, with the goal of arresting the spread of the disease. In an age where electronics are used to manage the personal and professional aspects of a person’s life, there is no doubt that the most efficient and thorough method of identifying and implementing contact tracing measures is through a person’s mobile device. But what sort of concerns arise when the most efficient way to monitor a person’s possible contacts, and gather information that may help predict and prevent future outbreaks, involves the voluntary sharing of personal data that many people hesitate to share with the government or third parties? What sorts of protections are (or should be) implemented by those companies and government agencies collecting the data? What do employers need to know in order to protect their workers while respecting the rights of those same individuals? Contact Tracing in the 21st Century According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a close contact is defined as “any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from 48 hours before the person began feeling sick until the time the patient is isolated.”1 Public health staff then engage in the actual tracing of the contacts, which involves notifying those contacts of the infected individual who have possibly been exposed due to their possible exposure to the original patient. Benefits of contact tracing, especially in the context of the use of electronic devices, are the ability to automatically alert public health authorities, the ability to provide users with information about testing and self-quarantining, and the ability to more accurately and thoroughly map the overall spread of a disease, highlighting any consistent trends exhibited by the general population on both a macro and micro scale. To best accomplish this, a number of public health authorities have begun initiatives focused on building applications (apps) that 20 June/July 2020