Data Analysis - Use it !!

I was reading many developer's site and chat (telegram and whatsapp) when the government stated that they are looking for an app similar to Singapore apps to track the close contact of the Covid-19 positive patient.

In Singapore, they are using a technology which I presume is Bluetooth to ping close contact within the radiant of the tech and capture necessary data which then used to determine the contact and request them to perform screening. Here are some of the news:

1. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2020/03/20/covid-19-singapore-launches-contact-tracing-mobile-app-to-track-coronavirus-infections
2. https://www.pymnts.com/coronavirus/2020/app-lets-singapore-track-virus-patients-movements/
3. https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/578445/smartphone-app-track-contacts-covid-19-patients
4. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/Singapore-urges-citizens-to-sign-up-for-COVID-19-tracking-app

And the apps is available on Google Play and Apple Store

1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sg.gov.tech.bluetrace&hl=en
2. https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/tracetogether/id1498276074

And as this article is written, there are many groups including international are coming with various hackathons for apps that can be used to track all COVID-19 patients and their close contact.

In Malaysia, since the announcement, many had gather groups to develop apps.

From my perspective, why must we reinvent the wheel? Why we need to develop many apps when we already have few that are potentially be used for it. 

For instance, D'scover by Favioriot was developed for a user to explore whatever the user likes but also close contact that uses the apps. I believed they can just tweak the apps to get close contact for COVID-19 and it is much faster than building and testing new apps. (by the way, this is not promoting them and I don't gain anything from it :))

Not just that apps, people have been using Google Maps, Waze, Grab, etc. All these apps collected millions of data and one of these data is people's location and whereabouts. On top of that, all telcos do have their customer's data location and track their movement. I attended the Big Data conference by Bigit a few years ago where one of the telcos presented their data analysis. They have shown the heatmap of their user and based on the communication tower.

I even had a discussion with a few telcos when they approach us (my previous company) to provide their services and wish for data sharing. I do request to have a set of data of their customer whereabouts too to ensure we can provide efficient services at the moment the customer approaches our station or hub, or at the time they are supposed to do so.

These data can be utilized to find close contact with COVID-19 patients. From these data, we know where they go, their ride and whom the came across with or pass by. Of course, these data are secured by all those companies for customer's safety and PDPA compliance. But, for the sake of government and to combat COVID-19, they can request minimal information limited to the phone number to call the respective COVID-19 contact. 

You just need a group of data scientists and data engineers to focus on the massaging and provide the relevant info to the government fast and secure. That's all :)

Don't REINVENT the wheel. Used It and MAXIMIZE the POTENTIAL.

* My personal opinion based on experience. Agreed to disagree :)