Ma3an-Together Against Corona, The Official Lebanese Contact Tracing App: Experience and Lessons Learned

National governments around the world are relying on digital tools to speed up and scale up contact tracing of individuals affected by Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to mitigate or contain potential resurgences. Several countries have implemented mobile apps as complementary tools for rapid contact tracing and notification of potentially infected or high-risk individuals. Similarly, Lebanon has developed a COVID-19 contact tracing and exposure notification app called “Ma3an – Together Against Corona”, as part of its mitigation measures to combat the virus. The app aims to complement manual contact tracing activities carried out by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). Ma3an was conceived and developed by the MoPH and a team of experts from the interfaculty Humanitarian Engineering Initiative (HEI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB), in collaboration with the developer TedMob.

The name Ma3an, a transliteration of the Arabic word “together”, emphasizes citizens’ sense of shared responsibility and collective effort needed to break transmission chains and reduce viral spread. The app uses low-energy Bluetooth technology to detect nearby phones of other app users. Through the Bluetooth antennas, the phones of Ma3an users who come in close proximity would detect each other’s signals and periodically exchange alphanumeric identifiers or keys that indicate a contact, without collecting nor revealing any personal information from the users. This information is securely stored on the users’ phones and protected by encryption. Once app users test positive, the data on their phones are uploaded to a MoPH server for analysis. App users who are identified as high risk, based on proximity and duration of the contact with an individual who tested positive, are notified via the app without revealing the identity of the positive case.