NIST has developed privacy-preserving encounter indicators that can slow future pandemics

 When you meet someone at your workplace or local coffee shop, you might call it "en". This is also its scientific term. As part of the urgent effort to fight COVID-19, science is rapidly evolving to measure the number of encounters and varying degrees of interaction in a group.

At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), researchers are applying this science to a concept they have created called "encounter indicators." They have developed an encryption method that can be applied to devices such as your mobile phone to help slow down or prevent the ultimate goal of a future pandemic. This method is also applicable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their research was explained in a preliminary study published in the "NIST Research Journal".

Encounter indicators measure the degree of interaction between crowd members. The degree of interaction can be the number of people talking to each other in the bathroom or the number of people walking along the corridor. There are many levels of interaction because people can interact in different environments.

To reduce the spread of infectious diseases, people believe that less communication and interaction with people in the community is essential. Less interaction between people means that there are fewer opportunities for the disease to spread from one person to another. NIST researcher René Peralta, the author of the NIST research report, said: "We need to measure. It is important to develop measurement technology and then see how we can use that technology to shape our work environment to slow future epidemics."

Imagine two people walking up and down from opposite ends of the corridor and meeting in the middle. To record this encounter, everyone can bring their own phone or Bluetooth device and broadcast the signal immediately after the encounter. One way to mark such encounters is by exchanging device IDs or aliases. Each device sends its own pseudonym, which belongs to the device itself. The pseudonym can be changed every 10 minutes to increase the privacy of personal identity.