COVID-19 Patient Tracking System Developed

The Russian Ministry of Digital Development has created a protocol for tracking the contacts of people infected with coronavirus using geolocation and mobile operator data. According to the document, the process will begin with the Ministry of Health providing the phone number of a COVID-19 patient. Special algorithms will then generate a list of people who were in close proximity to the patient, as well as those who communicated with the infected person via mobile phone over the past 14 days.

This list will be refined by considering the duration of time subscribers spent together and their movement patterns during the observation period. As a result, lists of phone numbers of individuals at risk of COVID-19 infection through direct contact with the patient will be compiled. The collected data will be centralized on the information resources of the Russian Ministry of Digital Development and sent to the operational headquarters of the regions of the Russian Federation, the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Health of Russia.

The Kremlin has stated that tracking people who have been in contact with infected individuals using mobile phone data does not violate their rights.