Brilliance Security Magazine: Privacy and Contact Tracing in the Workplace

May 27, 2020

On May 22, 2020, Brilliance Security Magazine’s Steven Bowcut featured Identiv’s Hirsch Velocity Software with Contact Tracing in the article "Privacy and Contact Tracing in the Workplace". Here is an excerpt: As the world returns to work following the months-long shutdown, the most likely place for the coronavirus to be transmitted is in the workplace. Traditional human-to-human tracing techniques prescribe that when a person is known to be infected with the virus, health workers will interview them to chronicle whom the infected person may have come in contact with and then contact those individuals to advise and monitor them. Velocity Contact Tracing  Using an office card access system to identify what people were potentially infected by being in the same area around the same time as the infected person adds a new level of efficiency. Few of us, unless we work in a very small workplace, could remember whom we came in contact with several days or even a few weeks prior to being diagnosed with the disease. The card access system, however, will have that information and will not forget.  In the case of the Hirsch Velocity Software with Contact Tracing system, if a person enters a building and is later found to be symptomatic of an illness, Velocity can pull a report of everyone who entered the same door within a given period. These people can then be notified to either get tested or self-quarantine. The feature is free, easy to download, and simple to implement into existing Velocity physical access control system (PACS) platforms.   "While this is useful during the days of COVID-19, it can also be used for other applications, such as seasonal influenza," said Mark Allen, Identiv GM, Premises. "This means your office can be proactive in responding to potential outbreaks, while simultaneously providing your employees with the peace of mind that there are measures in place to keep them safe."
A good argument can be made that some privacy concerns are diminished with the use of a system that only traces activity and contact within a small defined workspace over the new smartphone-based digital tracing technology that tracks contact virtually everywhere.
Read the full article via Brilliance Security Magazine.