Potential Of Data Exchange Ecosystem In Helping India Tackle COVID-19 Contagion
The massive COVID-19 outbreak has led to a global crisis. Leaders of all countries are taking critical decisions that will shape the world for years to come. To combat the epidemic in India, Indian officials too are taking several actions from a public health perspective such as building awareness, setting guidelines for health professionals, targetting infected clusters, limiting population movements and allocating scarce resources. However, to react in an effective manner to the pandemic and to make the right decisions for saving lives, unlike ever before leaders must have access to the right data sets at a global scale.
So far, consumer data has mostly been gathered to create marketing strategies, to enhance current products and services, to develop the products of tomorrow or to conduct health research for diseases leading to cures over a matter of years. The highly contagious and global format of COVID-19 has created the urgent need to trace, capture and analyze such data in a real-time fashion. Unfortunately, the global problem faced by officials and private sectors is the plethora of decentralized information existing in silos with authorities, big tech firms, healthcare providers and individuals, combined with major concerns around data privacy and the legitimate use of the data. To act fast, yet efficiently and consensually, a “one-stop-shop” like data exchange or a marketplace ecosystem can filter, structure and support infection chains, individual geo-location, travel history, contact tracing of those tested positive, basic health statistics, physical and mental health attributes, lifestyle choices of those immune, medication tracking, supporting reports of those infected and much more.
Leveraging mobile data to monitor movements, identify threats and offer assistance
While initiatives like Arogya Setu introduced by the central government on a national level are helping to answer the contact tracing problem, there is much more data available out there which is not being collated. A rewarding and consensual data exchange ecosystem mitigates the individual’s fear of data privacy and anonymity. Whilst enticing more individuals to join the connected world and to share meaningful data points, which certainly help in managing the current epidemic in India and potentially can even help forecasting and preventing future pandemics.
For instance, in the current epidemic situation, the authorities are already spending millions for helping the underprivileged population with food, sanitization and shelter on a daily basis. Imagine the impact of tackling this crisis, if individuals connected their smartphones to a data exchange ecosystem and could share more information about themselves as well as for those around them against rewards. The achieved rewards could further benefit the individuals and their families and efficiently create a value proposition beyond just help for the donations and aid provided by the government in the nation’s fight against COVID-19.
Citizens could actively join the frontline warriors in fighting the virus, identifying hot spots, gathering insights about preventive actions and accessing information to better manage and cope with the virus. Authorities could supplement this through directly communicating with individuals passing on insights about green and red zones, best practices or treatments, forwarding authenticated information and more. Meanwhile, the gathered information could help researchers in creating big data models monitoring the spread of the virus, mapping population movements, reviewing the impacts on small and medium retailers and adding substantial knowledge towards finding a cure.
Ensuring Data Privacy
When it comes to sharing data, there are growing concerns about user privacy vs. state surveillance and the way it will be used to respond to the COVID-19 emergency. As new technologies emerge with an objective to collect, disseminate and use data to fight against the pandemic, it is necessary to ensure that it is done in an ethical and consensual format.
An advanced data exchange or marketplace ecosystem will not only reward the users for sharing data but also solve their concerns around its privacy. It will make sure that all the information stays anonymous and are accessible only by the relevant authorities directly concerned with the individual identity like the emergency response teams or doctors treating patients.
That said, the right information reaching out to the right people can indeed save lives in times of crisis. It will just be indispensable to ensure that a data exchange platform is not prevailing beyond the extreme circumstances so that people are no more anxious about losing their privacy in this digitally connected world.
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