AIISMA, a data marketplace, which rewards users for consensually and anonymously trading their data via their app, launched a data tracking feature for coronavirus.
It's the only app to utilise the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSB) feature for COVID-19 contact tracing in rural areas. It’s for non-smartphone users who have previous versions of phones which were not 3G, 4G or 5G connected.
Since contact tracing emerged as one of the indispensable means to prevent the country from slipping into the community transmission stage, this India born app has come up with a way of contact tracing in rural India, where almost 70% of the country’s population lives. These phones operated majorly on USSB application. There is no app involved and interaction happens via the mobile network
This can be the primary way of tracking those in rural areas where the penetration of smartphones is not that high. The infrastructure in the back-end of the app and mobile remains the same. What changes is the individual's mode of connecting to the marketplace. Instead of having an app installed in their smartphone, they are selecting one option propagated to them by their service providers. Even basic handsets share the location information via cell towers with the telecom service provider. But this app would use the USSD feature when the person gives consent for this information to be shared with the AIISMA ecosystem which ensures anonymity and privacy.