A college in Michigan, names Albion College required students upon two weeks of arrival to download an app made to help tackle and track corona outbreaks on campus. The app lets the college know when a student tests positive along with a feature that gives students access to scheduling tests. However the backlash of the app came with the catch that the app tracks students locations at all time and students are required to have it on their phone.
I think parts of this app are intrusive while other parts are necessary. The feature that allows Albion to keep track of how many cases that are on campus is important. It is good to keep track of how cases are fluctuating throughout the year to base their response off of. The easy access to scheduling testing is also a very good feature. That allows more students to have an easier and quicker opportunity to see if they have covid. The intrusive feature on the app is the location. College kids are adults, there is no reason their college shouldn't trust them to follow social distancing rules and watch their every move. I took off the feature for my own parents to track my location, I would feel very violated if my college forced me to share my location. It's not like I'm doing anything bad, but why would Penn State need to know where I am on a Tuesday night, that's very weird.
I wouldn't accept that here because that's a violation of my own privacy. I think there is a thin line between privacy of data and people's safety however the other features on the app can take care of the students safety, the location is an invasion of privacy.
A more ethical way of solving this issue with tech is to ask for more reasonable requests for information that students can share without watching everything they do. For example students can submit contract tracing information to help with who may or may not have the virus.
Update on Covid Risk Diagram
My last post discussed an ER diagram that explained the relationships and attributes of one's risk of Covid.
Here is an updated diagram and video that splits the diagram into a physical diagram to be used for SQL database implementation and conceptual version of my diagram that makes it easier to read and convey the main points.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MOQTBW1-4pXRADuZJfP9mo2GrZOVwTUr/view
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