Crunchfish COVID-19 contact tracing technology combines centralized data storage with personal control over contact data
Crunchfish AB (“Crunchfish”) today announces that the company has filed patent application 2050514–5 in Sweden in order to combine centralized data storage with personal control over the contact data in the company’s COVID-19 contact tracing approach. The patent-pending solution also proposes an independent escrow service that handles decryption automatically when individually set conditions are fulfilled. […]
Crunchfish AB (“Crunchfish”) today announces that the company has filed patent application 2050514–5 in Sweden in order to combine centralized data storage with personal control over the contact data in the company’s COVID-19 contact tracing approach. The patent-pending solution also proposes an independent escrow service that handles decryption automatically when individually set conditions are fulfilled.
COVID-19 is a global crisis that, in one way or another, affects every single person in the world. An important part of the fight against COVID-19 is to trace the individuals who have been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed with the disease. This information can then be used by governments and health authorities to determine what measures should be taken to limit the spread of COVID-19. Tracing individuals who have been in contact with infected individuals is important because research shows that people may infect others before any symptoms of the disease are noticeable.
Crunchfish’s proximity-based technology, originally developed for social applications, may also be applied for contact tracing. For this purpose, we propose an approach based on sporadic and synchronized beacon signalling. The reason we suggest that the signalling is sporadic and synchronized is to be able to capture information also from iOS users who may not be using the app in the foreground. This was further described in our press release on April 17:
On this year’s Good Friday, Apple and Google announced that they will work together to develop a new Bluetooth framework for COVID-19 contact tracing that will be made available to national infection tracing apps during the month of May. A week later, on April 24, Crunchfish responded with an alternative approach that differs in several key aspects. We believe that data collection should be central, in order to reduce the risk that vital contact tracing data is not reported. Another difference is that Crunchfish’s COVID-19 technology may also be used by third-party apps to quickly get started and support contact tracing data collection in the country. In addition, Crunchfish’s solution is more battery efficient and also immediately available.
Despite the fact that Crunchfish works with central data collection, we concur with Apple and Google that personal integrity is of great importance. But instead of storing information decentralized on each mobile, Crunchfish suggests an alternative solution where contact tracing data is still collected centrally, but in encrypted form with decryption controlled by the individual. This makes it easier to make data accessible without the need to upload contact tracing data after getting sick. We have also proposed an independent escrow service that automatically handles the decryption when individually set conditions are fulfilled. The patent application is filed in Sweden with application number 2050514-5.
For more information, contact:
Joachim Samuelsson, CEO at Crunchfish
+46 708 46 47 88
joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com
Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.
200505 – Personal intergrity in COVID-19 solution
