  This paper discusses the aspects of data reliability and user privacy for the
emerging practice of mobile phone based contact tracing for the COVID-19
pandemic. Various countries and large technology companies have already used or
plan to design and use mobile phone based solutions, in an effort to urgently
expedite the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to the
disease and limit its spread to the general population. However, serious
concerns have been raised both in terms of the validity of the collected data
as well as the extent to which implemented approaches can breach the privacy of
the mobile phone users. This review examines the weaknesses of existing
implementations and concludes with specific recommendations that can contribute
towards increasing the safety of infrastructures that collect and process this
kind of information, as well as the adoption and acceptance of these solutions
from the public.
