OBJECTIVES : Various models have been proposed to inform public health policies to curb the COVID-19 pandemic but they have often failed to consider all relevant containment methods. We aimed to review contact tracing approaches.

METHODS : A literature search was conducted via PubMed, governmental websites, grey literature, and general press to collect, analyse, and report on health policies and strategies adopted by COVID-19 affected countries.

RESULTS : Population movement tracing based on mobile technologies offers essentially two approaches: a) anonymous, voluntary contact-tracing based on the BLE protocol that can be standardised to comply with high data privacy standards and b) non-anonymous geo-localisation of users based on GPS and additional data, such as travel history, credit card records etc., that is compulsory for infected individuals and voluntary for other users, and which entails citizen surveillance that would be considered unacceptable in most Western countries. Moreover, population surveillance laws adopted by countries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic might be extended after the acute phase of the epidemic has ended and might be used by the governments to expand their rights to invigilate the lives of citizens based on their health status.

CONCLUSIONS : Contact-tracing remains controversial due to its invasive nature. Massive testing combined with isolation of confirmed cases along with strict mask-wearing may have mitigated the spread of the virus and avoided lockdowns.