TestProtect Protect-Scotland App: Your 01 Jan COVID-19 test result is positive. Please self-isolate. If using the ‘Protect Scotland’ app, add test code DBK9FX (expires in 24 hrs) 21m ago MESSAGES Close TEST CODE (AUTHORISATION CODE) SENT IN SECONDS IP ADDRESS (APP USER) ANONYMOUS The encrypted anonymous keys reach the app backend. IP addresses are deleted. The anonymous diagnosis keys are stored in the app backend. Open
NHS Scotland - Test and Protect

Transparency – Evidence, Ethics and Impact

From Friday 29th April, the Protect Scotland app will no longer alert you if you have been in close proximity with a COVID-19 positive person.

Therefore, the app will no longer allow you to be aware of any potential infection risk that you may then pose to others, such as family members or work colleagues.

For transparency, this page has been kept available to you as it provides links to a variety of sources that helped inform what we originally developed, how we developed Protect Scotland – including the approach we took, and what considerations we took into account as to the impact Protect Scotland is likely to have.

Evidence

Our innovation partners the Digital Health & Care Institute worked with their academic members and published a number of documents that directly contributed to the design of Protect Scotland:

We also considered the European Centre for Disease Control’s paper on Contact tracing for COVID-19: current evidence, options for scale-up and an assessment of resources needed.

In addition, there have been a number of academic studies on the potential effectiveness of proximity tracing apps. The most recent of these, which supported the approach Scotland has chosen to take, was from Oxford University and Google.

These studies showed that, when implemented as part of traditional manual contact tracing, proximity tracing apps such as Protect Scotland have the potential to reduce infections, hospitalisations, and deaths at almost any level of adoption – although they all conclude that the higher the rate of adoption, the better the impact.

You can read more here and here.

So please download Protect Scotland today, and use the ‘Share and Protect’ button to spread the word with your friends, family and colleagues.

Ethics

A key consideration driving how we developed Protect Scotland was our ability to demonstrate adherence to an ethical framework. There are a number of ethical frameworks out there covering digital health developments more generally, and contact tracing technology specifically. For example, see this report on building public trust from the Ada Lovelace Institute which was published after we had started developing Protect Scotland.

However, it was a report from Dr Pagliari entitled The Ethics and Value of Contact Tracing Apps: International Insights and Implications for Scotland that set out the framework that ultimately drove our considerations:

  1. The technology – Will it work reliably? Is it safe? Is it secure? Is it private-by-design? Is it co-dependent on any other apps, databases or technologies (e.g., AI) that could alter these properties? Is the software code open to scrutiny by others?
  2. Its data privacy policies – Does it capture or use only the minimum necessary data? Is consent required? How anonymous is it? Is it clear who it will be shared with and for what purposes? Will it be deleted after COVID-19? Are these policies adequately explained and accessible to users?
  3. Its usefulness – Is it really needed for this purpose? Does it achieve what it claims to? Is the value for citizens worth the privacy trade? Will it divert resources from more useful activities?
  4. Its optionality – Are citizens free to choose whether or not to use the app, or particular features within it? If so, is this a genuine choice (e.g., not being able to return to work/ school otherwise)? Is it easy to control how data is shared by opting in or out?
  5. Its fairness – Could be used in inequitable or discriminatory ways? Is it disproportionately intrusive, exploitative or coercive? Are the app and its benefits accessible to all (digital inclusion)? Could it restrict people’s liberty?
  6. The people driving or developing it – Are they being transparent about the project’s ambitions and scope? Do they have secondary motives or conflicting interests?
  7. The institutions responsible for delivering it – Is there sufficient oversight and accountability; are there adequate processes and expectations for stakeholder involvement?
  8. The users – Is it vulnerable to misuse in ways that could harm or inconvenience others?

Impact

A number of impact assessments have been completed, either in full or as interim documents. You can download these here:

Source Code

Protect Scotland is built on Open Source code, originally developed on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Ireland and further developed on behalf of the Government of Northern Ireland.

Protect Scotland was developed from the ‘Open Green’ resource under the terms of the Apache 2.0 Open Source Licence. You can view the full Protect Scotland code, along with some technical documentation and diagrams, at https://github.com/NES-Digital-Service/protect-scotland. You can copy, inspect and distribute the code for your own use, although Protect Scotland accepts no liability for how the source code is used by others.

The code repository has basic documentation. There may be instructions for running the code but we cannot offer any support to 3rd party developers. We have not included any private API keys. While you may be able to build the app, you will not be able to connect to the backend. A self-built app will not be able to broadcast or receive contact tracing information. You can read more on making a public health proximity tracing app using Google and Apple’s Exposure Notification System at https://www.google.com/covid19/exposurenotifications and https://developer.apple.com/documentation/exposurenotification.