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Introduction

In several countries, contact tracing apps have been introduced as a way to prevent the

spread of COVID-19. These apps work by identifying the people who have tested positive

from the COVID-19, prompting the people to share the information, locating the

individualswho have been in close contact with them and then notifying the people. In this

report the brief about the ethical issue related to uses of contact tracing apps is discussed.

Also, some of the case studies relevant to clauses of ACS Code of Professional conduct are

provided which are summarizes the values related to professional work by the members and

importance of professionalism in maintaining quality of life of people.

Ethical Issues regarding contact tracing Apps

Monitoring of the people by the contact tracing apps compromises with the privacy of

the people because the personal data of the people can fall into the wrong hands and can used

for maleficent activities. These apps use GPS or Bluetooth to detect the proximity of an

individual with another. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enables the mobile of a person to

broadcasts the information with unique ID. Different apps works in different ways but all of

them follow the same basic steps (Ahmed, et al., 2020).

However, this process sounds so feasible and doable but the case is not that simple as

it looks because being monitored by these apps for 24 hours raises the question of privacy of

people and potential abuse. These apps stores log of the ongoing locations and timestamps of

a person with the help of GPS in the devices, hence compromising with the privacy of

peopleby revealing their whereabouts and travels over a period of time. A balance should be

maintained between privacy and security because poor implementation of standards of

security can put the private data of the people at risk. Some of apps which uses GPS are
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SafePaths , Hamgen and AarogyaSetu app (Trang, Trenz, Weiger, Tarafdar, & Cheung,

2020).

Centralized and decentralized Approaches: There are two different type of

approaches used by these apps. In centralized approach, public health authorities are able to

analyse the information of the people by checking the log of their devices which is uploaded

to a central server. However, through this process the privacy of the people is invaded

because their location and the information of the other people with whom they have met is

stored in the servers. NHS COVID-19, TraceTogether and COVIDSafe are some of the apps

which uses this centralized approach.In decentralized approach, minimum amount of

information of a person is uploaded on the servers and the log remains on the mobile device.

Users who have tested positive, their IDs are downloaded anonymously by the apps and the

same information is matched with the logs stored on their devices.PrivateTracer is one of the

apps which uses decentralized approach (Rowe, 2020).

Challenges Regarding the Privacy: There are four types of challenges that people

face related to the privacy and security of these apps:

1. If the process which uses the Bluetooth Low Energy by the apps in

broadcasting the data packets in order to identify other devices is not set

properly, the device of a person can get hacked by interlinking various devices

and their respective identification packets (Chan & Saqib, 2021).

2. Sensitive information like contacts logs and encryptions keys which are stored

by contact tracing apps should be kept encrypted and stored in an application

called sandbox rather connecting them with shared locations. Still with the

sandbox approach, a hacker can hack the device if the hacker gets physical

access (Bengio, et al., 2021).

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3. Devicesofpeople can be targeted with the attacks like “man-in-the-middle” at

the intercept of the trafficif the communication with the backend of the server

of an application is not encrypted properly (Yasaka, Lehrich, & Sahyouni,

2020).

4. When the information, such as diagnoses of the user and contacts logs, is

submitted to the servers, authentication must be performedbecause if the

proper authorization is not done, servers can receive fake health reports which

undermines the reliability of the system (Wen, Zhao, Lin, Xuan, & Shroff,

2020).

Tracing apps should be downloaded from the official stores only, as there are many

fake apps has been reported during the pandemic because these fake apps are made by the

mischievous people which can gain access to the devices of the people and apps related to

security solution should also be installed by the users to scan the applications and protect the

device from the malware.

Codes Guide in Ethical Choices

To abide by codes of ethics is an essential characteristic of professionfor the

members. These codes are established as the Code of Professional Conduct and is the part of

the regulations of the society which are applicable to every member of ACS working in the

field of information and communications technology (Burmeister, 2017). The ACS code of

ethics agree with the argument that “Codes guide the members of a profession in ethical

choices” because these codes are relevant to standards of professional legislation and if the

codes are not abided then the failure can be used as grounds for a claim of professional

negligence.
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Examples of Code of Conduct:

 An ACS member, Katherina has provided an extensive and voluntary aid to many

infirmities supports groups. These groups use ICT to benefit the clients and provide

an efficient working of the organisation. The clauses related to professional conduct

in this ASC code includes a) Public Interest: To consider other professions and social

systems and organizations to be traversed by the profession of a member. b) Quality

of Life: To recognize the role of ICT in people’s life particularly for disadvantaged. c)

Professional Development: To increase the awareness regarding issues which affects

profession and the professional public relationship. d) Professionalism: To extend the

knowledge and understanding of public towards ICT (Carter, Mayes, Eagle, & Dahl,

2017).

 The ASC Disciplinary Committee decided to do the meeting on Camera and avoid

making results of the determinations to their complainants or general membership to

protect the reputation and status of the members. In this aspect the ASC conduct

clauses related to professionalism to take appropriate actions against the breaking of

the codes and to promote trustworthiness and professionalism in ICT (McAuliffe &

Nipperess, 2017).

 To remove racism and sexism in information system to be used in employment firm,

the ASC have various codes of conduct in that aspect such as a) Public Interest:

Consider interest of those who are potentially affected by the work, raise the conflicts

regarding professional activity and legal public requirements and objectify the

conflicts of interest to the stakeholders. b) Competence: To advice the stakeholders on

a proposed product, project or service-related interests. c) Professionalism: To reduce

the diversity in workplace and ensure the equal opportunities of employment,

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renumeration, advancement and other working conditions to every stakeholder based

on performance and skills instead of prejudices and stereotypes (Maxwell, 2020).

 To maintain the rules of Traffic Control System (TCS) and its selection for a

particular locality the ACS has following code of conducts. a) Honesty: To avoid

misleading of clients regarding the suitability of the service or the product. b)

Professionalism: Exhortation of any code of conduct or any action which leads to

tarnish the image of the profession and stigmatised the good name of ASC. c) Public

Interest: Inform the stakeholders of any conflicts (Richardson, 2018).

 To avoid any misunderstanding and miscommunication regarding the permission on

official work manners, such as allowing the employees to continue work off site when

there is a urgency or emergency with a adequate communication in management

system to be more attentive regarding these issues or avoid the casualness for the

same. ASC has code of conducts which endeavour the reserve integrity, utility,

continuity and security of ICT under Public Interest Code of Conducts. In case of

Competence seek and respect the expertise of professional colleagues in their area of

expert and ask their advice and suggestions in case of any misunderstanding a task

(Goldingay & Boddy, 2016).

Conclusion

To conclude the report, the contact tracing apps may have playing a significant role in

the technological sectors or aspects but the risks related to these apps cannot be avoided and

keeping in mind the security and privacy concerns strict rules should be taken into

consideration. The ASC Code guides the public effectively regarding their ethical choices

and to improve quality of life of individuals. These codes are building blocks of well

structured and professional workplace conduction of ICT. The role of different clauses and

values related to ethics is quite essential to maintain the ethical culture of ICT.
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References
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Survey of COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps. IEEE Access , 134577-134601.

Bengio, Y., Ippolito, D., Janda, R., Jarvie, M., Prud'homme, B., Rousseau, J.-F., et al. (2021).
Inherent privacy limitations of decentralized contact tracing apps. Journal of the American
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Burmeister, O. K. (2017). Professional ethics in the information age. Journal of Information,

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