Not Just Another Contact Tracing!We would like to thank Aspect for generous funding to help launch LCT. | 
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LCT, the first identity-less contact tracing and collaborative effort between Soteria and Enduring Net!
LCT can be used globally by anyone or any organisation; it has no border. As more people use LCT, the network graph gets richer. As the graph gets richer, its ability to alert people to possible exposure to COVID gets better. But, it can also be used VERY EFFECTIVELY for a single event like a wedding reception when the host is keen to make sure his/her guests are safe and be alerted if there is any covid incident.
LCT, a personal diary and local contact tracing app, is developed by Soteria Institute (Oregon, USA) and Enduring Net (Manchester, UK). We like to thank Imago Software Manchester for excellent and helpful contributions in Spring 2021. LCT is based on Google/Streetmap location ID and longitude-latitude coordinates, and hence the scope of tracing is global with no country boundary (except China where the use of Google map is banned). Covid warnings and alerts are sent instantly, and users receive the messages whenever he/she is on the internet, which ever country he/she might be.
LCT requires internet connection but does not use Bluetooth, so there is no drain on battery. LCT complements NHS and other Bluetooth contact tracing, which is focus on the Individuals, whereas the focus of LCT is on congregation of people (e.g., meetup, church, workplace, hiking trip). LCT enables agency surrogate (e.g., grandson register grandma's trip to see grandad at care home, wedding host takes note of guests’ attendance, lecturer registers students at a workshop, a hike leader records a meetup to the Lake District etc.).
LCT promotes actionable intelligence based on mathematical models and has low false negative by design. It permits local personal management of information and control. More importantly all travel data is decentralised and stored only in personal local devices; hence it is privacy preserving with no single-point failure. In the next version, we aim to provide extension for business owners to claim location ID to get location-based risk data and to manage appointment bookings in advance, and to produce heat maps by postal/zip code for local infection control.
LCT has minimal administration, and in most cases, a single click to use. It is just a personal "check-in" diary, most effective for tracking high transmission risk groups. The messaging is done over internet. The risk management is completely local, personal, and anonymous. Apart from IP address, there is no other identity use. One could avoid being traced absolutely by using different devices or adopt the agent proxy (like wedding host checks in on behalf of guests who do not want to use the app or do not have their phones handy). All travel history can be completely removed by clearing the cache. The internet connection records on the server older than 14 days is purged permanently.
| Features | Advantages over Bluetooth | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Like a WhatsApp “check-in book” | Focus is on the groups vs. individuals | ||
| Track high transmission risk groups | Not Bluetooth; no smart phone needed | ||
| Minimum administration | Low false negative by design | ||
| Messaging over internet | Local management information and control | ||
| Covid-safe register | Decentralised - avoids data overload and data loss | ||
| No personal information - by clearing cache | |||
| It scales exponentially with very little overhead |
How can you help?
LCT is open-source and free of charge to users. Please help by becoming an LCT repo contributor (see list of skills below):
- Marketers
- Testers
- Technical writers
- UX practitioners
- JavaScript developers
- Vue/Vuetify experts
- Node developers
- Redis developers
- Socket.io developers
- iOS experts
What’s next? |  |
Since LCT works best in congregant settings, and since this technology is approachable by all programming practitioners, a short-term goal is to bring the LCT codebase to high school and university classrooms around the world. Let them build their own LCT (as students at the University of Manchester did this spring). Let them use it to keep students and staff safe. Other cohorts includes churches, synagogues, mosques, airlines, gyms, restaurants, and hotels. And then there are the large organizations or individual teams and buildings. I encourage somebody at Microsoft to explore the feasibility of using LCT at work to keep those closest to you safe and optimally productive…and innovative.
Stay safe out there!
Michael Corning, Executive Director, The Soteria Institute
Go to User Guide, Technical Details, or Data Policy. If you have any questions or feedback, please Email Us.