Vecsim: Carrier-based, Privacy-Preserving Cellphone Contact Tracing

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Vecsim, a novel contact tracing method, is proposed. Vecsim determines the user proximity based on the existing log data already collected by the cellphone network carrier for network management purposes, and is transparent to the users. Compared to the existing methods that require user involvement, such as downloading an application and turning on Bluetooth, Vecsim is easier to deploy and may cover a larger population. Vecsim protects user privacy by focusing on user proximity detection, which is different from localization. In addition, proximity detection is a much easier problem than localization and can achieve higher accuracy. The key novelties of Vecsim include a simple method for distance estimation based on the similarity of two data records, as well as exploiting the massive log data to learn the discontinuity of the signal field. Vecsim has been tested with the signal field generated by a commercial ray tracing software program in a 2 km by 2 km urban area. The results show that Vecsim alerts over 96% of cellphones within 50 m to each other, while alerting less than 4.5% of cellphones beyond 150 meters.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Ubiquitous and mobile computing

    • Ubiquitous and mobile devices

      • Mobile devices

• Networks

  • Network components

    • Wireless access points, base stations and infrastructure

  • Network properties

    • Network mobility