This essay focuses on the potential use of digital information for contact tracing of COVID-19 and discusses privacy and access issues as well as public good.

To persuade individuals of contact tracing’s benefit, it is important to remove some of the social and cultural negative associations to this practice from past use. Some countries, particularly in Europe, have already begun determining how to better regulate data collection, prevent algorithmic bias, and limit use of mass surveillance. It is also important to increase understanding of the data, platforms, and devices that could be useful, and to frame the purpose of contact tracing as most appropriate for the context: public health, patients, or citizens.