App-Based Disease Surveillance After COVID-19

I would be surprised if you could not figure out if two people are screwing with moderate confidence using nothing but demographic data and location based metadata dumped into a ML algorithm. The price of false positives is a few unnecessary tests, and is therefore super low, so it doesn't even have to be that good of a system.

Tinder data could be purchased to build out the initial algorithm, and if there are still challenges, volunteers could be solicited for validation data.

Mixing in public social media (instagram) and actual communications content might help, but after validation of the location system, probably isn't necessary, but could be analyzed using robots rather than human review, which is apparently acceptable for other purposes.

Is it morally justified to use location metadata (gps), public social media (instagram), communications metadata (contact lists), and communication content to enumerate close contacts that may have spread respiratory viruses? If so, how could it be wrong to use the exact same dataset to fight other diseases with massive social burdens.

I mean sure, some people might cry about their privacy, but the data isn't theirs, courts have established that it belongs to the communication companies, all of whom are apparently on board with metadata assisted surveillance for security and now public health.

Google and Apple are building the Bluetooth tracker, the Chinese gps app with color coding for exposure risk is a thing, facebook checked instagram to see if people in Italy are social distancing. Nobody is crying about any of these things. This is just a proposal to use the same datasets for the same reason.

Anyone who argues can be labelled pro disease and pushee out of the public debate, just like anyone who complains about flu tracking software can be asked, 'do you want old people to die'?

The initial system could be instrumented with a color coding scheme, and an app. When people go to dr offices, part of the basic vitals check at the start of a visit is the doctor running a database check and suggesting testing for various conditions based on the color code. The app to check your own color code status could be downloaded by interested users. 'Show your color' would become something people just ask each other during intimate encounters.

Most jurisdictions already require that positive tests for certain pathogens (STIs are on this list) be reported to a central authority by doctors, this is a long-standing thing and nobody with an opinion that matters questions it:

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001929.htm

Governments could implement this proposal without much public debate by just rolling out a corona app, adding features for different classes of respiratory disease, then adding features for the rest of the 'reportable pathogens' that are transmitted by different means. The model could be developed in house using already available data (reported tests and location metadata).

We can look back at this post in five years and see how things have moved. Good luck stopping it if you think this is morally repugnant as you apparently do.