JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The coronavirus disease pandemic is the biggest global economic and health challenge of the century. Its effect and impact are still evolving with deaths estimated to reach 40 million if not checked. One effective and complementary strategy to slow the spread and reduce the impact is to trace primary and secondary contacts using technology.

Objective:

The objective of this paper is to survey strategies for digital contact tracing for COVID-19 pandemic and to present how using mobile positioning data conforms with Nigeria’s data privacy regulations.

Methods:

We conducted an exploratory review of current measures for COVID-19 contact tracing globally. We then analyzed how countries are using mobile positioning data technology in handling the COVID 19 pandemic spread. We made recommendations for how Nigeria can adopt this approach in context of Nigeria’s Data protection Regulation (NDPR).

Results:

Despite the potentials, digital contact tracing always comes in conflict with patient data privacy regulations. We found that Nigeria’s response complies with the NDPR, and that it is possible to leverage telecommunications call detail registry (CDR) to complement current strategies within the NDPR regulation.

Conclusions:

Our study show that mobile position data contact tracing is important for epidemic control as long as it conforms to relevant data privacy regulation. Implementation guideline will limit data misuse.