Table 2.
Proximity/Location awareness technologies for COVID-19 digital contact tracing
| Technology | Location/ Proximity Accuracy |
COVID-19 tracing |
Privacy Concerns | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outdoors | Indoors | Suitable for | Unsuitable for | ||
| GNSS | 10 m GPS only, 5 m GPS + WiFi |
Most likely not operating | Outdoors / Tracking overlapping routes / Detection of hotspots | Indoors | High |
| BLE | <2 m | <2 m | Tracing individuals within 2 meters | Spaces with airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 | Low |
| Beacons | Building level | Room/floor level | Same room/ floor/building | Assessing the distance between individuals | Low |
| QR | Building level | Room/floor level | Same room/ floor/building | Assessing the distance between individuals | Moderate to high |
| WiFi | Depending on Access Points | <1m | Indoors | Outdoors | Low |
| UWB | Depending on UWB transmitters | <0.5 m | Indoors | Currently, few smartphones have this technology | Low |