People Count

An introduction to the technology of contact tracing and its usefulness for public health, considering questions of efficacy, equity, and privacy.Contact tracing is key to containing and controlling the spread of a virus in a pandemic. South Korea, China, and Singapore were among the few countries that quickly employed contact tracing after the emergence of COVID-19; the United States did not. In People Count, cybersecurity expert Susan Landau offers an accessible examination of the technology and efficacy of contact tracing in a pandemic. Can we repurpose the tracking technology that we carry with us--devices with GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and social media connectivity--to serve public health in a pandemic?