GreenPass App: Fighting COVID-19 with your data privacy in mind
Background
Coronavirus (COVID-19) has now spread far and wide, creating a global pandemic. Viruses do not know of boundaries and race. In order to control a pandemic, it is everyone’s responsibility to follow certain safety rules to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
Medical professionals are fighting in the hospitals, but what can we do at the community level?
Community level control is one of the more complicated cases. Everyone (including businesses) are involved. Currently, the most effective solution is to completely shut down certain areas and request that people stay at home. This kind of isolation helps a lot for us to overcome the disease in its early stages. This has proven to be effective based on some country’s methods to defeat the virus, such as China and South Korea.
Since late February, COVID-19 has spread exponentially around the world. We are now part of a global pandemic. Due to the large volume of patients, and consequent shortage of medical services, people have suffered greatly.
Lockdown is becoming common practice in most countries, as governments ask their citizens to stay at home. Some states in the US have issued ‘Shelter at home’ orders. Most businesses are closed, except some necessary ones such as supermarkets and other key infrastructure. For the people who do have to leave their house, they are asked to keep social distance with each other. However, this still can’t stop the fast spread of the virus in each country.
While the world is deeply panicked, can we do something to help the people around us throughout this tough period?
Use Case
The disease outbreak is a stark reality now, but our daily life should still go on. We studied a lot of use cases utilised throughout the world, all of which fit perfectly into the platform we have quickly developed as a solution.
Should we just simply shut down the universities, shopping malls, and office buildings? The simple solution is yes, we should. However this is not sustainable.
During the crucial time of a disease outbreak, we need to give people certain level access to buildings. The solution is to make sure people who want to have access, have a safe code that the gatekeeper/security can check. In some countries, the current practice is to measure your body temperature at the gate, then check a code provided by a mobile carrier which indicates you are not from an infected area in the past 14 days. If both statuses are green, you are free to enter. This is just part of the normal day to day life that we now have to face. People are cooperative, and it works well in society. By showing the code indicating you are healthy, you should be able to access almost everywhere you want to. It’s a good balance between strict control and personal freedom.
Naturally, this is putting a lot of stress and creating workload for the people at the frontline. Most of them do this manually, and in most cases, they just ask you several questions and grant you access based on your yes or no answers. It’s easy to make mistakes, and it is also easy to get infected by being too close to another person during the process.
This is also a critical period for people working in important sectors including energy, communications, medical, police, army, pharmaceutical, electricity, water, airports, immigration, banking, mass media, construction, petrol stations. etc. The list goes on. It would be nice if these sectors could show their health status in the workplace by logging their data daily. This would create a level of safety for everyone.
In order to make these methods safe and sustainable, we need to have a system in place. It should have several basic elements:
- Gather important test data
- Check temperature and submit with evidence
- Geo-location checking (only with the users permission)
- Remote appointment and code scan (touch-free process instead of contact with physical items such as pens, papers and desks).
This can reduce the workload dramatically and improve accuracy. If all of the raw evidence and data points are recorded on the blockchain, it will be immutable. This is particularly useful for tracing back to a specific point where any incident has occurred.
People will more than likely comply during this chaotic period. However, will they in the future if some areas make it a regular access policy?
Doubtful.
Because of this, an incentive plan needs to be put into place inside the system. We need to encourage people to report data into the system and maintain their green status QR code. We also need to recognise the people who actively scan and check codes at the entrances to buildings, and provide them with good rewards.
The value of this system is not just for the present, it’s very important for the recovery period, and long term. When a company, school, airport, or factory is back to normal, if they don’t have these kinds of tools and measurements in place, one sick case can cripple the whole organisation back to ground zero. It will cause huge financial losses across the board. The mortality rate caused by the coronavirus is currently around 4.7%, but the financial loss to a company and their families could create much higher risk.
In the long term, GreenPass becomes a dynamic personal health status passport. All of which will be under strict privacy control.
Solution
Our team quickly created a solution and made it available to the world:
GreenPass
The GreenPass mobile app was created from scratch within a couple of weeks (yes, that’s a fairly accomplished mission impossible.) The first version focuses on the four most used scenarios:
- COVID-19 check status: Positive or negative
- Regular body temperature measurement data
- Geo-location: Your footprints in the past 14 days
- Code scan and appointment service
If joint conditions of the above are met in normal range, the user will get the green QR code as a ‘pass’. They might also get a yellow or red status if there is an underlying issue. By showing the code to the security of the location, they will then use the GreenPass app to scan the QR code and either grant or deny access. At the same time, this records the data point on the blockchain, utilising the joint digital signature of the security and visitor.
The use of conditional geo-location varies in each country. In some countries, this is a very strict requirement. In others, it is a soft requirement. For example, in the recent White House meeting, Dr. Birx announced that people who have recently been to New York City should self-quarantine in their homes. It will be extremely helpful if people have tools in hand to show their recent geo-location status.
The data and statuses are updated daily, therefore creating a dynamic pass to ensure the safety of the person and the area they are visiting. The GreenPass platform has an open structure for the data types and rules, so more rules can be added quickly and efficiently as they are needed.
The app also provides a simple appointment service. The user can make appointments remotely and share their GreenPass status. The security or administrator of the location can approve or deny access in advance. At the gate, the verification is a simple QR code scan. This completely streamlines the process and reduces close contact risk.
You are also able to scan other people’s GreenPass QR codes without having people make appointments with you. This brings convenience to people who just want to check and record the data point, but don’t need any appointments, such as the entrance to a shop, park, public transportation, or some restricted areas.
All data points are recorded onto the blockchain, associated with the personal ID. In this case, we are using the Elastos DID. All of these data points also indicate the interaction between ID’s. In the future, this is potentially a social network that connects people together with a common interest.
In order to make the app relevant, but also sustainable, an incentive program is implemented via smart contract to encourage all parties to participate actively in the loop. They will be rewarded by doing so.
Privacy
Our philosophy behind GreenPass is one of self-discipline and self-proof. We don’t want to downplay the common values and sense of our free society in a state of emergency. We believe the honest people deserve more freedom and convenience throughout this horrible situation. If people use the tool wrongly by recording false data, the punishment will come from people around them and from the people that care about them, not directly from the authorities at the top.
We believe no one wants to lose such credibility in their social circle. Once the trust is lost, it’s hard to gain back, and in most cases, it will never return.
We want to respect and protect the basic rights and privacy that every citizen deserves. When we designed the system, we chose blockchain as the base technology to ensure data ownership and trust. All data points that the user submits, belong to the user. It is bound with the user’s personal decentralized identity (DID). This DID is linked to your login identity in GreenPass, such as an email or social media account. It doesn’t require any sensitive personal information such as driving licenses or passports.
All data associated with this ID confirms the true ownership. The on-chain data or hash of data stored in the decentralized public ledger is immutable. This is the digital oath that everyone should make when they submit the data. Other off-chain data is encrypted and stored in personal cloud disks (or anywhere with the user’s digital signature.) Due to the blockchain’s immutability, this information is tamper-proof, verifiable, traceable, and private.
To protect the user’s privacy at a deeper level, we have made it so the GreenPass app intentionally ‘forgets’ data points in 14 days by default. This ‘short memory’ is good for protecting our privacy. It includes self-submitted daily body temperature and locations. All data points and their hash values exist in the decentralized public ledger. This data now belongs to the user and no one else. No one can use this data without the owner’s permission, including the GreenPass app itself.
The location data is completely optional when the user submits the body temperature and test status. The only records that can be displayed longer than 14 days in GreenPass are the test statuses, because it can be a good record of history for a person to prove if they have tested, re-tested, or been immunised at any time throughout their life.
Except for appointment services, all other displayed personal locations in the app are no more detailed than district level.
GreenPass is not just a short term tool for combatting COVID-19. It has an open architecture to include an array of data for the owner down the road. It should be our life-long green passport to help us gain access to friends and places across the world, with a balance between freedom, health, and privacy.
More data analysis services can read the user’s data with the owner’s personal permission. This will generate results, such as a QR code with colour status. The analytical process is essentially an algorithm. The analysis in GreenPass is currently quite simple. When it evolves, or more people develop their own data analysis services, the owner of the data can enjoy more services by granting access to these services and directly benefit from them. We will place these services into the future ‘Leo trusted execution environment.’
Features
GreenPass 1.0 is the result of the sleepless joint efforts by the team. From the concept to the release version, it took around 2 weeks to complete. The team worked on it tirelessly in order to make this utility app available to the suffering world as soon as possible.
Health Status
At the core of GreenPass is a QR code representing your health status. The code has three colours:
Green, Yellow, and Red.
Green: You tested negative, and your body temperature is within normal range. If you haven’t tested, the normal body temperature also keeps the code green if you submit the temperature data everyday.
Yellow: Your temperature data has expired. It reminds you to take action immediately to maintain your green status.
Red: You tested positive, or your body temperature is abnormal.
You can voluntarily submit your current location into the GreenPass app. It will not affect the status of your code. It will show your submitted footprints over the last 14 days. Any data beyond 14 days will not be displayed. This is a useful feature to help prove you didn’t visit certain areas in the last 14 days. Such proof is required by some countries or local authorities when they grant you access to certain areas.
Appointment Service
Scan and appointment service is another key feature of GreenPass 1.0. You can create your location in the app. It can be your office, library, store, school, etc. People can then remotely make appointments with you at that location.
The appointment shows who is coming and the colour of their GreenPass code. You can accept or deny the appointment based on your availability and the code status of the guest. When your guest arrives, you or the person you assigned can use the GreenPass app to scan the code of the guest. This will confirm their arrival.
Of course, you can always just scan their code as they are entering a building without any appointment. This will help you manage the touch points in your area. Just in case there is anything that happens, such as a patient being found in that area, you can immediately inform the people who visited the area during the same period of time.
The notion behind this scan and appointment service is simple. We want to help healthy people be able to maintain their normal social life, while we can also alert them if anything happens that will require their attention.
The following are some typical screenshots of the app.
GreenPass personal status QR code
Personal detailed records and footprints
Multi-type data submission (Reagent test, body temperature check, my current location)
Make an appointment
Scan and access control
As GreenPass 1.0 rolls out, more features and requirements are constantly being worked on for the roadmap. We made this app with a sense of urgency to help out the suffering world. We also clearly understand that we cannot do this alone. If you have any suggestions and comments, please feel free to let us know.
More thoughts to share
I recently read an article by Yuval Noah Harari, titled ‘The world after coronavirus’. I hope the GreenPass app can help by following in this direction during and after this critical period.
- Totalitarian surveillance vs Citizen empowerment
- Nationalist isolation vs Global solidarity
All countries have fought hard against the virus inside their borders. They are also worrying about the import cases from international travellers. When the US announced the travel ban on European flights, panic ensued. Now, more and more countries have decided to shut down the borders for an undisclosed period of time.
During a crisis, it makes us realise how weak international collaboration is. There is no global identity for one person. The standards and rules are different in each country, and most countries don’t recognise the oath from a foreigner, but instead need clear evidence.
The reason the world is taking such hard steps is that people can not easily identify who is healthy and who is not. People with a healthy status should be able to travel and get access to the places they want. The businesses also welcome the healthy people for the sake of the economy. GreenPass can help with this.
What if the person can share their GreenPass status when they book a flight?
How about users being able to open the app and show the security or hotel manager their COVID-19 test report, temperature history, and location map?
Even though it is not an official certificate, it can provide trustable data to a certain degree. This will help the healthy travellers gain access to the world and reduce the concerns of the people in their destinations.
Because all data is submitted by the data owner, GreenPass can help store data for the user who needs to bring it with them everywhere they travel to. I always had trouble finding the little yellow card when my daughter went to a new school, now I can put all her immunisation records into her GreenPass. That’s now part of her lifetime health record.
David Ramskill, a friend in my online community, shared this with me:
“I think the GreenPass solution is great timing for something that the community can do to combat COV-19, while leaders focus on how to shut down the virus, through NPI, they won’t be able to restart the economy in the way it was 3 months ago by trading off the potential for another outbreak. Therefore I believe the countries will prolong the economic shutdown to ensure that the number of cases keep within the healthcare system limits.
I don’t think this will go away for most counties until we develop herd immunity and some sort of vaccine which is a long time away. What is also important outside of business is to be able to establish trust between social circles, ie: do I fully trust my friend to tell me the truth about their symptoms before I meet them for coffee, being able to share your data will help establish that trust.
For example I have a new born child and everyone wants to see him, but do I swab their mouths and take temperatures before they come into my house? The answer is no and the experience during their stay is uncomfortable. It’s also a good way to monitor children who don’t understand what the hell is going on? They think it’s one big school holiday. Although I presume your dApp is focused on dealing with business and critical systems it’s just as valuable within the social community as well”
This is exactly the direction the GreenPass app and its supporting platform is heading.
Comparison
There are a number of CODIV-19 apps released in varying stages of production and maturity. Most of them depend on centralized data sources, such as the mobile carriers or government authorities. This is a quick solution for saving lives, but it also raises concerns on personal data protection.
There are mainly two problems with this approach.
Firstly, the data source is just not enough. It doesn’t have the ability to collect daily personal health data. The status it shows in the QR code is partial and not sufficient at all. It’s mainly showing a person’s geolocation over the past 14 days.
Secondly, the data gathering doesn’t have the permission from the individual. The data belongs to the platform, not the user. It can be a quick solution but cannot be sustainable long term. No one is willing to give a monopolistic platform more personal data for free.
GreenPass solves these issues in a completely new way. It’s an open platform that can accept any type of raw data, which can then be recorded on the blockchain where it is now immutable. It represents our ‘you own your data as your property’ philosophy.
The platform doesn’t own any user data. All data is associated with the personal digital identity (DID). This helps users submit data to the personal data space, but it has no ability to use the data without the data owners permission. At the same time, it helps users maintain their lifetime health record and associated data in a decentralized world. This becomes the user’s property in the long run.
GreenPass doesn’t connect to any data sources to collect your data. We believe people are living in a free society and care about their personal credit and reputation. GreenPass helps maintain your green QR code based on the data you submit. Since the record is immutable on a decentralized ledger and can accompany you throughout your life, people should be very careful when submitting these records. The consequence could be huge if your friends find out there is a problem with your credibility.
Why do people want to pay such a price?
If we analyse and compare most approaches, the key differing points are:
- Platform being the owner of data vs User being the owner of their data
- Platform can use data as they wish vs Needing user permission
- Centralized solution vs Decentralized solution
- Privacy in legal agreement vs Technology for privacy control
Call For Action
We believe this is an incredibly useful app for fighting COVID-19 with a clear global fit. Let’s try to use this tool in your own community, your school, your church, your company, your city. etc. The world is a decentralized community, let’s solve the problem in a decentralized way.
Download
The GreenPass mobile app is available for both Android and iOS via the project’s official website:
Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the DMA team’s Telegram Group, or email us at: smile@mygreenpass.life
Credits
This is the joint effort of the LEO community, DMA team, Manhattan Project Fund team, and the Elastos Ecosystem team. The DMA team led the product innovation and development. This is an open project for anyone who wants to participate and contribute.
Here I want to give special thanks to the amazing language translation volunteers from our community around the world during this pandemic:
Chris Parker (English)
Ricardo Zago (Portuguese)
Arnaud Mirey (French)
Noah Kornter (German)
Ramin (Italian)
Weidong Zhang (Chinese)
Ivy Qu (Japanese and Korean)
Stefan Savic (Serbian)
-Brian Xin
2020/03/31
