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Een Nederlandstalige uitleg video is op Youtube beschikbaar.
Any technology that works by broadcasting unique codes can never truly be anonymous. Corona Detective simply matches your identity to your codes while you are broadcasting them.
Just three simple steps:
This is an art project by Tijmen Schep. It was built to make a point: the system that Google and Apple have created is useful, but we should refrain from saying it's 100% anonymous. It's not.
The goal is not to spread fear. Please keep using the contact tracing apps if you already are. I just wanted you to make an informed decision, and fight the simplistic narratives that this tech is 100% anonymous.
Use of this tool in the Netherlands is not allowed! This is because of our temporary corona laws. I don't know the specifics about other European countries. In any case, make sure you have someone's permission before storing their codes.
You are only allowed to use this tool for testing, and to inform yourself that this really is a valid risk to privacy. Don't use it to actually surveil those around you. Someone's health status is sensitive personal data, so collecting it without a valid legal ground (e.g. their permission) is illegal.
By using this tool you absolve me, the artist, from any legal or other ramifications. Use it at your own risk.
Once the point that this project has sparked enough awareness about the current over-simplified narratives around contact tracing technology, it will be taken offline. In any case, from the 1st of januari 2021 the tool will no longer work.
Use one of these browsers to run this tool:
Your browser supports bluetooth scanning, but to use it you need to change an advanced setting. Browser-based bluetooth scanning is still a brand new feature.
The Bluetooth switch of your device seems to be in the 'off' position.
If your device has a camera, Corona Detective can automatically match bluetooth codes to people's faces. Think of it as a smart security camera that can warn you if people with COVID19 are entering your building. Would you like to enable this?
My name is Tijmen Schep, CEO. Youtube has shown me that we now live in a dangerous world, where everyone around you could kill you. To effectively combat COVID19 we can't rely on restrive policies or even more restrictive masks. We need individuals that can create break-through technological innovations. The best weapon to fight Covid19 - or any threat to society - is to have more and better data.
I believe privacy should never stand in the way of innovation. We should be open about who we are - data wants to be free. So why hide if you get Covid19? That's why Corona Detective can break through the facade, and put control over your life, and the lives around you, in the only safe hands: yours.
TIP After you add people to your watchlist, you will find additional information here. #Gamification.
Thank you for using Corona Detective. You are a true citizen.
By sharing the names and codes of people you spotted with your friends, they could also keep an eye on who is getting ill. Of course, make sure you have the permission of the people you've spotted before you do so.
Only the first letter of the last name wil be copied over. The email address and notes will not be copied.
If other people have shared their collected data with you, can you add it to your watchlist by pasting it in below, and clicking save.
You could also share the data you collected with us. Together, we could de-anonimise the entire Covid tracking system. We can't protect ourselves from others if we don't know if they are ill.
We are currently building this feature. If you'd like to stay up to date on this progress, leave your email address below.
The latest codes are automatically updated every three hours. If you want, you can force a download of the latest codes now.
It has been ... since the infected codes list was last updated.
Bluetooth scanning was stopped because you switched to another browser tab or application.
Corona detective is an art project that aims to show how these bluetooth-based tracking technologies are easy to abuse, and can normalize a surveillance culture.
These are the points I'd like to make:
The system that Google and Apple developed is not fully anonymous. By design, the technology broadcasts unique codes, so it never could be.
By acknowledging that these Bluetooth signals are personal data, they may gain better legal protection from companies that have deployed large bluetooth scanning networks in our public spaces.
The system that Google and Apple have made available could be redesigned to improve privacy further. For example, instead of changing the broadcast code every 15 minutes, it could be once a minute, and variable. This would have made it harder to build this app.
People could keep track of who they meet on a day to day basis. Use a paper diary, or use an app. Keeping track of your own interactions could be useful, and tools could be made that support this process.
Most politicians have already been infected with solutionism, where one of the symptoms is an increased desire to build apps. By developing this technology we may end up not putting in the effort that is more likely to slow down the pandemic, such as wearing masks, social distancing, and being courteous and caring towards each other.
By giving so much attention to these contract tracing apps (of which I am now also guilty), we haven't discussed another part of the 'technological fix'. Many governments are using the crisis to gain access to vast amounts of mobile telephony logs. These are said to be anonymized, but once again those claims of anonimity should lead us to ask more critical questions, not less. As more data about us is available, it becomes harder to truly anonymize data.
A surveillance culture doesn't just appear. We slide into it, in small steps that on their own don't feel wrong. In my opinion, creating a system where citizens actively decide to install an app to monitor each other is a step in a questionable direction.
The cost of surveillance technology has dropped rapidly. The challenge of our time is no longer to implement and use technology, but to avoid using it, and to be able to articulate why.
At the very least, I hope we can stop saying that the technology that these contact tracing apps build on is completely anonymous. It is not.
Thank you for not using Corona Detective any further.
Tijmen Schep