Japanese Govt Funding “Infection Tracking” via Cell Experiment

The idea is see how/if cell phones that track location can help track and respond to a “made up” illness and thus be valuable in a real situation. A subsidiary of Softbank Corp., a major Japanese Internet and cellular provider, proposed a system that uses phones to limit pandemics and hopes to be selected to test it in an elementary school. Students will carry cell phones and be tracked minute by minute. Several will be identified as “infected” and those they “interact with” may thus be infect too. Parents will be notified to bring the child to the doctor.

There are many issues related to privacy, participation, notification to be addressed, so testing out reactions in a “made up scenario” is a good way to identify them.

- AP