Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era
Some of the recent developments in data science for worldwide disease control have involved research of large-scale feasibility and usefulness of digital contact tracing, user location tracking, and proximity detection on users’ mobile devices or wearables. A centralized solution relying on collecti...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Data |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/5/4/87 |
| _version_ | 1827705564180774912 |
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| author | Viktoriia Shubina Sylvia Holcer Michael Gould Elena Simona Lohan |
| author_facet | Viktoriia Shubina Sylvia Holcer Michael Gould Elena Simona Lohan |
| author_sort | Viktoriia Shubina |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Some of the recent developments in data science for worldwide disease control have involved research of large-scale feasibility and usefulness of digital contact tracing, user location tracking, and proximity detection on users’ mobile devices or wearables. A centralized solution relying on collecting and storing user traces and location information on a central server can provide more accurate and timely actions than a decentralized solution in combating viral outbreaks, such as COVID-19. However, centralized solutions are more prone to privacy breaches and privacy attacks by malevolent third parties than decentralized solutions, storing the information in a distributed manner among wireless networks. Thus, it is of timely relevance to identify and summarize the existing privacy-preserving solutions, focusing on decentralized methods, and analyzing them in the context of mobile device-based localization and tracking, contact tracing, and proximity detection. Wearables and other mobile Internet of Things devices are of particular interest in our study, as not only privacy, but also energy-efficiency, targets are becoming more and more critical to the end-users. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of user location-tracking, proximity-detection, and digital contact-tracing solutions in the literature from the past two decades, analyses their advantages and drawbacks concerning centralized and decentralized solutions, and presents the authors’ thoughts on future research directions in this timely research field. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:06:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7ee6f23e85fc4044b72f6e6fda0d6535 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2306-5729 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:06:44Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Data |
| spelling | doaj.art-7ee6f23e85fc4044b72f6e6fda0d65352023-11-20T14:50:30ZengMDPI AGData2306-57292020-09-01548710.3390/data5040087Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 EraViktoriia Shubina0Sylvia Holcer1Michael Gould2Elena Simona Lohan3Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, 33720 Tampere, FinlandInstitute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, SpainInstitute of New Imaging Technologies, Universitat Jaume I, Avda. Sos Baynat, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, SpainFaculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, Tampere University, Korkeakoulunkatu 1, 33720 Tampere, FinlandSome of the recent developments in data science for worldwide disease control have involved research of large-scale feasibility and usefulness of digital contact tracing, user location tracking, and proximity detection on users’ mobile devices or wearables. A centralized solution relying on collecting and storing user traces and location information on a central server can provide more accurate and timely actions than a decentralized solution in combating viral outbreaks, such as COVID-19. However, centralized solutions are more prone to privacy breaches and privacy attacks by malevolent third parties than decentralized solutions, storing the information in a distributed manner among wireless networks. Thus, it is of timely relevance to identify and summarize the existing privacy-preserving solutions, focusing on decentralized methods, and analyzing them in the context of mobile device-based localization and tracking, contact tracing, and proximity detection. Wearables and other mobile Internet of Things devices are of particular interest in our study, as not only privacy, but also energy-efficiency, targets are becoming more and more critical to the end-users. This paper provides a comprehensive survey of user location-tracking, proximity-detection, and digital contact-tracing solutions in the literature from the past two decades, analyses their advantages and drawbacks concerning centralized and decentralized solutions, and presents the authors’ thoughts on future research directions in this timely research field.https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/5/4/87Internet of Things (IoT) mobile deviceswearableslocation estimationuser trackingproximity detectioncontact tracing |
| spellingShingle | Viktoriia Shubina Sylvia Holcer Michael Gould Elena Simona Lohan Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era Data Internet of Things (IoT) mobile devices wearables location estimation user tracking proximity detection contact tracing |
| title | Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era |
| title_full | Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era |
| title_fullStr | Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era |
| title_full_unstemmed | Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era |
| title_short | Survey of Decentralized Solutions with Mobile Devices for User Location Tracking, Proximity Detection, and Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Era |
| title_sort | survey of decentralized solutions with mobile devices for user location tracking proximity detection and contact tracing in the covid 19 era |
| topic | Internet of Things (IoT) mobile devices wearables location estimation user tracking proximity detection contact tracing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/5/4/87 |
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