The past, present and future of digital contact tracing
Open accessThe claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Contact tracing in the context of disease spreading has long been studied.
“Also contact tracing in the context of disease spreading has long been studied [110].”
From Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities (2023) · cites this paper as [110]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response
Bavel, J. J. V., Baicker, K., Boggio, P. S., Capraro, V., Cichocka, A., Cikara, M., Crockett, M. J., Crum, A. J., Douglas, K. M., Druckman, J. N., et al. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z · Cited by 4,964 · see citing works
Lazer, D., Pentland, A., Adamic, L., Aral, S., Barabási, A.-L., Brewer, D., Christakis, N., Contractor, N., Fowler, J., Gutmann, M., et al. (2009) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1167742 · Cited by 3,365 · see citing works
Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence
Lloyd-Smith, J. O., Schreiber, S. J., Kopp, P. E., & Getz, W. M. (2005) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature04153 · Cited by 2,514 · see citing works
Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing
Ferretti, L., Wymant, C., Kendall, M., Zhao, L., Nurtay, A., Abeler-Dörner, L., Parker, M., Bonsall, D., & Fraser, C. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abb6936 · Cited by 2,512 · see citing works
The Structure and Dynamics of Networks
Newman, M., Barabási, A.-Ĺ., & Watts, D. J. (2011) · Princeton University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9781400841356 · Cited by 2,310 · see citing works
Kleinberg, J. M. (2000) · Nature · doi:10.1038/35022643 · Cited by 1,730 · see citing works
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
Fowler, I. N. A. C. I. J. H. (2009) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,329 · see citing works
Aleta, A., Martín-Corral, D., y Piontti, A. P., Ajelli, M., Litvinova, M., Chinazzi, M., Dean, N. E., Halloran, M. E., Longini, I. M., Merler, S., et al. (2020) · Nature Human Behaviour · doi:10.1038/s41562-020-0931-9 · Cited by 810 · see citing works
Epidemiology and transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in two Indian states
Laxminarayan, R., Wahl, B., Dudala, S. R., Gopal, K., Mohan B, C., Neelima, S., Jawahar Reddy, K. S., Radhakrishnan, J., & Lewnard, J. A. (2020) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.abd7672 · Cited by 485 · see citing works
Olguin, D. O., Waber, B. N., Kim, T. J., Mohan, A., Ara, K., & Pentland, A. (2008) · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Part B (Cybernetics) · doi:10.1109/tsmcb.2008.2006638 · Cited by 417 · see citing works
Steering user behavior with badges
Anderson, A., Huttenlocher, D. P., Kleinberg, J. M., & Leskovec, J. (2013) · International World Wide Web Conference (WWW) · doi:10.1145/2488388.2488398 · Cited by 367 · see citing works
Contact tracing and epidemics control in social networks
Huerta, R., & Tsimring, L. S. (2002) · Physical review. E, Statistical physics, plasmas, fluids, and related interdisciplinary topics · doi:10.1103/physreve.66.056115 · Cited by 115 · see citing works
Demystifying COVID-19 digital contact tracing: A survey on frameworks and mobile apps
Martin, T., Καρόπουλος, Γ., Hernández-Ramos, J. L., GEORGIOS, K., & IGOR, N. F. (2020) · Joint Research Centre (European Commission) · doi:10.1155/2020/8851429 · Cited by 109 · see citing works
Epidemic Contact Tracing via Communication Traces
Farrahi, K., Emonet, R., & Cebrián, M. (2014) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095133 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Why do some COVID-19 patients infect many others, whereas most don't spread the virus at all?
(2020) · AAAS Articles DO Group · doi:10.1126/science.abc8931 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Finding red balloons with split contracts
Cebrián, M., Coviello, L., Vattani, A., & Voulgaris, P. (2012) · ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) · doi:10.1145/2213977.2214047 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Predicting a Community's Flu Dynamics with Mobile Phone Data
Farrahi, K., Emonet, R., & Cebrián, M. (2015) · ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) · doi:10.1145/2675133.2675237 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Modeling Corporate EpidemiologyPreprint
Waber, B. N., Pollock, E., Cebrián, M., Crane, R., Danon, L., & Pentland, A. (2010) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1008.3402 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
The effect of stay-at-home orders on COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United StatesPreprint
Fowler, J. H., Hill, S. J., Levin, R., et al. (2020) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2004.06098 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 8
- Madan, A. et al. In Proceedings from Engaging Data: International Forum on Management of Personal Electronic Information https:// go.nature.com/3ibNISU (MIT Press, 2009).
- Olguín, D. O. et al. IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part B 39, 43-55 (2008).
- Madan, A., Cebrian, M., Lazer, D. & Pentland, A. In Proc. 12th ACM Int. Conf. Ubiquitous Computing 291-300 (ACM, 2010).
- Kleinberg, J. M. Nature 406, 845 (2000).
- Huerta, R. & Tsimring, L. S. Phys. Rev. E 66, 056115 (2002).
- Farrahi, K., Emonet, R. & Cebrian, M. PLoS ONE 9, e95133 (2014).
- de Montjoye, Y.-A. et al. Evaluating COVID-19 contact tracing apps? Here are 8 privacy questions we think you should ask. https://go.nature.com/3hRUVqV (Computational Privacy Group, 2020).
- Martin, T. et al. Wirel. Commun. Mob. Comput. 2020, 8851429 (2020).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Combating emerging financial risks in the big data era: A perspective review
Cheng, X., Liu, S., Sun, X., Wang, Z., Zhou, H., Shao, Y., & Shen, H. (2021) · Fundamental Research · doi:10.1016/j.fmre.2021.08.017 · Cited by 103 · see citing works
Data science approaches to confronting the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative review
Zhang, Q., Gao, J., Wu, J. T. K., Cao, Z., & Zeng, D. D. (2021) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences · doi:10.1098/rsta.2021.0127 · Cited by 52 · see citing works
Accelerating the Transition in the Context of Sustainable Development
(IPCC), I. P. O. C. C. (2023) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009157926.019 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Nationwide rollout reveals efficacy of epidemic control through digital contact tracing
Elmokashfi, A. M., Sundnes, J., Kvalbein, A., Naumova, V., Reinemo, S.-A., Florvaag, P. M., Stensland, H. K., & Lysne, O. (2021) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26144-8 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Human-centred artificial intelligence for mobile health sensing: challenges and opportunities
Dang, T., Spathis, D., Ghosh, A., & Mascolo, C. (2023) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.230806 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Business as usual through contact tracing app: what influences intention to download?
Robin, R., & Dandis, A. O. (2021) · Journal of Marketing Management · doi:10.1080/0267257x.2021.2017323 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Bahle, G., Rey, V. F., Bian, S., Bello, H., & Lukowicz, P. (2021) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s21165604 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
Praemonitus praemunitus: can we forecast and prepare for future viral disease outbreaks?
Sessions, Z. L., Bobrowski, T., Martin, H., Beasley, J.-M. T., Kothari, A., Phares, T., Li, M., Alves, V. M., Scotti, L., Moorman, N. J., et al. (2023) · FEMS Microbiology Reviews · doi:10.1093/femsre/fuad048 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Use of temporal contact graphs to understand the evolution of COVID-19 through contact tracing data
Wu, M., Li, C., Shen, Z., He, S., Tang, L., Zheng, J., Fang, Y., Li, K., Cheng, Y., Shi, Z., et al. (2022) · Communications Physics · doi:10.1038/s42005-022-01045-4 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Privacy-Preserving Individual-Level COVID-19 Infection Prediction via Federated Graph Learning
Fu, W., Wang, H., Gao, C., Liu, G., Li, Y., & Jiang, T. (2023) · ACM Transactions on Information Systems · doi:10.1145/3633202 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Contact Tracing Research: A Literature Review Based on Scientific Collaboration Network
Li, H., Zhu, Y., & Niu, Y. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph19159311 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Ghose, A., Lee, H. A., Oh, W., & Son, Y. (2023) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.2022.0117 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Shelby, T., Caruthers, T., Kanner, O. Y., Schneider, R., Lipnickas, D., Grau, L. E., Manohar, R., & Niccolai, L. M. (2021) · JMIR Formative Research · doi:10.2196/31086 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Segal, C. D., Zhang, Z., Karras, B. T., Debra Revere, A., Zane, G., & Baseman, J. G. (2021) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2021.06.04.21257951 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Wang, Y., Ngien, A., & Ahmed, S. (2022) · Communication Studies · doi:10.1080/10510974.2022.2094982 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Specht, I., Sani, K., Loftness, B. C., Hoffman, C., Gionet, G. L., Bronson, A., Marshall, J., Decker, C. H., Bailey, L., Siyanbade, T., et al. (2022) · Patterns · doi:10.1016/j.patter.2022.100572 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Governing digital crisis responses: platform standards and the dilemma of COVID-19 contact tracing
Buesching, F. B., Steininger, D. M., & Veit, D. J. (2022) · Journal of Business Economics · doi:10.1007/s11573-022-01118-4 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Test, trace, and isolate in the UK
Cheng, H., Cohen, T., & Lin, H.-H. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n822 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Steinbrink, E., & Reuter, C. (2024) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104661 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Gibson, L., Dixon, E. L., Sharif, M. A., Rodriguez, A., & Cappella, J. N. (2022) · AJPM Focus · doi:10.1016/j.focus.2022.100059 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
The network limits of infectious disease control via occupation-based targeting
Avraam, D., Obradovich, N., Pescetelli, N., Cebrián, M., & Rutherford, A. (2021) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02226-x · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Privacy and contact tracing efficacy
Benthall, S., Hatna, E., Epstein, J. M., & Strandburg, K. J. (2022) · Journal of The Royal Society Interface · doi:10.1098/rsif.2022.0369 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
DP-ACT: Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Asymmetric Digital Contact Tracing
Abtahi, A., Payer, M., & Aminifar, A. (2023) · Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies · doi:10.56553/popets-2024-0019 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Zhang, B., Wang, R., Xu, H., Zhang, X., & Zhang, L. (2022) · IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications · doi:10.1109/jsac.2022.3214277 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Ngwenyama, O. K., Akhlaghpour, S., Hedström, K., Rowe, F., Schlagwein, D., & Tarafdar, M. (2026) · Technology in Society · doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2026.103376 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Health Certificate Exchange for Travel Management in Pandemic: Review and Perspectives
Shen, B., Tan, W., Cai, H., Jiang, L., Guo, J., & Qin, P. (2022) · IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems · doi:10.1109/tcss.2022.3202130 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Digital Contact Tracing in Combating COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia, New Zealand and China (Preprint)Preprint
Harith, A. A., Muhamad, N. A., & Griffiths, R. F. (2021) · doi:10.2196/preprints.30288 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Paganoni, M. C. (2021) · The Journal of International Legal Communication · doi:10.32612/uw.27201643.2021.3.pp.8-16 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Hanson, C. K., & Liu, K. (2022) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0270279 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Sun, Y., Koo, J. R., Park, M., Yi, H., Dickens, B. S. L., & Cook, A. R. (2023) · Digital Health · doi:10.1177/20552076231178418 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Hu, J., Farrahi, K., & Cebrián, M. (2024) · IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics Systems · doi:10.1109/tsmc.2024.3428393 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Moon, K., Kim, N., Lee, J. J., Yoon, H., & Lee, K. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph191811270 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Using mobile network data to color epidemic risk maps
Cabana, E., Lutu, A., Frı́as-Martı́nez, E., & Laoutaris, N. (2022) · doi:10.1145/3557995.3566120 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Contact Tracing: Computational Bounds, Limitations and ImplicationsPreprint
Kong, Q., García–Herranz, M., Dotú, I., & Cebrián, M. (2021) · arXiv (Cornell University) · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2102.13349 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Cheshmehzangi, A., Zou, T., Chen, W., Chen, H., & Su, Z. (2022) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2022.913189
Improving epidemic risk maps using mobility information from mobile network data
Cabana, E., Lutu, A., Frı́as-Martı́nez, E., & Nikolaos Laoutaris, B. (2022) · ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (SIGSPATIAL GIS) · doi:10.1145/3557915.3561012
Contact-Tracing-Apps (digitale Kontaktnachverfolgung)
Djeffal, C. (2023) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-23669-4_86-1
Geospatial Data: From Theory to Practice
Domingues, A. C. S. A., da Silva, F. N. L., & Loureiro, A. A. F. (2023) · doi:10.5753/sbc.12954.7.2
Citron, D., Loh, P., Yee, S. K., & Bershteyn, A. (2024) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3760051/v1
A Study on the Data Science in the Age of Covid
Deo, J. S., & Jaiswal, S. (2023) · International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation · doi:10.51976/ijari.1112308
Contact-Tracing-Apps (digitale Kontaktnachverfolgung)
Djeffal, C. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-658-37373-3_86
Test allocation based on risk of infection from first and second order contact tracing
Bayolo, S. G., Felipe, M. D., & Gayraud, G. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0320291
Asabere, N. Y., Dzata, J. E., Lawson, G., Duodu, N. Y., Kuuboore, M., & Kuworye, S. (2026) · IntechOpen eBooks · doi:10.5772/intechopen.1014253
- Authors
- Cebrian, M.
- Venue
- Nature Electronics
- Published
- 2021-01-25
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 2-4
- ISSN
- 2520-1131 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3122988223
- Cited by
- 44
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 12
- FWCI
- 9.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Electronics (publishedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Data-Driven Disease Surveillance
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Keywords
- digital contact tracing, COVID-19 pandemic, virus transmission, social networks, pandemic response, contact tracing apps
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
