Read on Twitter
1/ I noticed that a lot of people don't know what #tracing and #tracking means.
#tracking is associated to something bad, but for some reasons #tracing seems ok. Let's go back to the definitions
#tracking is associated to something bad, but for some reasons #tracing seems ok. Let's go back to the definitions
2/ According to Wikipedia: "A tracking system is used for the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of location data for further processing." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracking_system
3/ Even without technical skills, people understand that a system is observing, monitoring, their movements. Because we are adults with our free will, it's something we don't like.
#tracking = bad
#tracking = bad
4/ According to Wikipédia: "In software engineering, #tracing involves a specialized use of logging to record information about a program's execution" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_(software)
5/ This is clearly more complicated to understand than the #tracking definition.
In order to debug a program, a software engineer will *log* more information than usual about the program execution. The info collected is highly dependent of the problem he wants to solve.
In order to debug a program, a software engineer will *log* more information than usual about the program execution. The info collected is highly dependent of the problem he wants to solve.
6/ Let's put that into our context. #Covid19 triggered one of the biggest crisis of the world. Software engineers like to solve problems, so they tried to find something. They want to *debug* the situation. To do that they invented the contact #tracing apps
7/ The program to debug here is a human disease. The information they want to collect to debug it is your contact history.
8/ To summarize:
- #tracking = collection of information about your movements
- contact #tracing = collection of information about your contacts
In both case, it is personal information gathering about you.
- #tracking = collection of information about your movements
- contact #tracing = collection of information about your contacts
In both case, it is personal information gathering about you.
