Scammers will exploit new ‘test and trace’ system, experts warn

Contact tracing is doomed to fail if our dithering state bureaucracy is allowed to remain in charge of it

Victoria Ward

A MODIFIED track and trace system to be announced this week will be entirely reliant on the public handing over key personal data to call centre workers, amid warnings that it could prompt a slew of phishing scams.

The system will not involve the app but will instead require medical professionals to call those tested for the virus and ask them to provide the names and contact details of those they have spent time with in previous days.

However, experts in privacy and data protection said it would require the public’s full confidence if they were to be expected to divulge information to a stranger on the phone, warning that such trust was lacking at present.

Ravi Naik, a solicitor and legal director of AWO, the data rights agency, said: “The trust element issue is critical if this is to work but the whole process has been so haphazard and underhand that there is not much there.

“It’s about transparency – who will be able to access the data, what checks and balances will there be? So far, the answers have been opaque.”

The Information Commissioner’s Office warned of growing numbers of organisations using the pandemic to set up scams and target the vulnerable, while the Financial Conduct Authority urged the public to be vigilant as “unscrupulous operators” were increasingly using new phishing methods.

The process has been mired in controversy, with ministers initially promising the track and trace app would be rolled out across the UK by mid-may before Boris Johnson vowed that a “world-beating” system would be in place by June 1.

The technology has been beset by problems and the trial on the Isle of Wight has not gone to plan, amid claims that there is no coherent strategy.

A team of developers is said to be attempting to iron out a range of issues, including a problem with the algorithm that will determine who to alert if somebody reports feeling unwell.

The Department of Health and Social Care is expected to announce a watered-down version of the scheme on Thursday, with the word “track” abandoned in favour of “test and trace”.

A DHC spokesman said those who tested positive would be asked to provide information about people with whom they had recent, close contact.

“The Test and Trace service, which includes dedicated contact tracing staff, public health experts and digital technology, will swiftly get in touch with anyone considered to be at heightened risk of having been exposed to the virus and advise them on the steps they need to take to stop the spread of coronavirus and protect their families, friends, neighbours and work colleagues,” the spokesman added.

Baroness Altmann, the personal finance expert and former pensions minister, said: “I would be very concerned about the security around giving out phone numbers. These cold calls will be the route of so many scams.

“The Government will need to explain what people can do to check this is a bona fide call and explain how they can be sure their details will not be sold,” she added.

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office said: “We expect organisations collecting personal information … to be transparent about why they are using it, what they will do with it and how individuals can exercise their information rights.”

The NHS, the Government’s scientific advisers and union leaders are all claiming that lockdown cannot be eased further until “test, track, and trace” is fully operational. Let’s hope not.

We were originally told that the system, in which new sources of infection are identified and suppressed via testing and tracing of infected people’s contacts, would be operational by mid-may. Now the Prime Minister is promising a worldclass system by June 1, though Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said it will not be “full blown” at launch.

It would be excellent if this happens. But there are reasons to be sceptical. After abandoning testing and tracing in

March, the UK was meant to rely heavily on a new app. But app-based tracing alone has not yet been proven effective anywhere.

Uniquely, the UK’S app will send out alerts from self-reported symptoms rather than positive tests, leaving it open to malicious reports and low uptake. How many people will isolate because they receive a notification that they “may” have been near someone who “may” have Covid-19?

It remains unclear when the app will be released. Initially, we will rely on call-centre-based contact tracers, hired rapidly in a programme tightly controlled by Whitehall. This is in stark contrast to the localised, technology-assisted but manual contact tracing that has succeeded in East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Councils employ armies of local public health professionals, but have not been engaged. The UK’S approach to tracing is more centralised than communist China’s, which relies on local officials at block and street level.

This crisis has exposed the danger of relying on the command-and-control “excellence” of the British bureaucracy. However ambitious ministers’ plans and noble their intentions, there have been delays and failures. The state is proving brittle and unable to adapt.

Public Health England took control of testing – rebuffing help from universities, charities and companies – but failed to ramp up capacity in time. Whitehall took control of PPE procurement, which led to of offers of help from smaller domestic producers being ignored. The diktat to hospitals to discharge elderly patients without tests may have caused thousands of preventable deaths.

Other countries have kept cases low from the very beginning using testing and tracing. The UK doesn’t have this luxury anymore.

There are still around 61,000 new cases every week, according to the Office for National Statistics. The existing testing regime is spotting less than a third of those cases. This makes tracing extremely difficult. A single recent case from a South Korean nightclub required tracing and isolating about 1,700 people. It is not clear that the UK’S unproven tracing system is up to the challenge.

The harsh reality is that there are no silver bullets in the fight against Covid-19. We were told first about the need for herd immunity, then about millions of at-home antibody tests that never occurred and vaccines that may never work. Now “test, track, and trace” will solve all our woes.

Unions are refusing to support the return to work or school until testing and tracing means there is no risk of further outbreaks. They want a “sustained downward trend” in cases. But even with a successful tracing system there will be flare-ups. The next few months will be more whack-a-mole than complete suppression.

The claim that this crisis is a vindication of state power could not be further from the truth. The state has failed at almost every turn. The real successes have been members of civil society stepping up to feed the vulnerable and businesses converting overnight to produce PPE, breathing aids and tests.

To get out of lockdown, we must unleash human ingenuity. Solutions can be found locally, like the Covid-19 Volunteer Testing Network that has been quietly testing thousands of GPS. Or Mcdonald’s, which is putting up screens in its kitchens and taking only contactless payment.

Our lives and prosperity are too important to be put into the hands of a maundering bureaucratic monster. A greater Britain means a bit less reliance on the state.