  Contact tracing has grown in popularity as a promising solution to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The benefits of automated contact tracing are two-fold.
Contact tracing promises to reduce the number of infections by being able to:
1) systematically identify all of those that have been in contact with someone
who has had COVID; and, 2) ensure those that have been exposed to the virus do
not unknowingly infect others. "COVI" is the name of a recent contact tracing
app developed by Mila and was proposed to help combat COVID-19 in Canada. The
app was designed to inform each individual of their relative risk of being
infected with the virus, which Mila claimed would empower citizens to make
informed decisions about their movement and allow for a data-driven approach to
public health policy; all the while ensuring data is safeguarded from
governments, companies, and individuals. This article will provide a critical
response to Mila's COVI White Paper. Specifically, this article will discuss:
the extent to which diversity has been considered in the design of the app,
assumptions surrounding users' interaction with the app and the app's utility,
as well as unanswered questions surrounding transparency, accountability, and
security. We see this as an opportunity to supplement the excellent risk
analysis done by the COVI team to surface insights that can be applied to other
contact- and proximity-tracing apps that are being developed and deployed
across the world. Our hope is that, through a meaningful dialogue, we can
ultimately help organizations develop better solutions that respect the
fundamental rights and values of the communities these solutions are meant to
serve.
