On Friday, Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google announced that they will be collaborating together for creating contact tracing technology to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. The software will allow people into logging other phones nearby. It is undoubtedly a rare collaboration between the two Silicon Valley firms, whose operating systems run 99% of the smartphones in the world. Their combined effort could boost the usage of apps that are designed to get potentially infected individuals into quarantine or testing more reliably and quickly than the existing systems. According to health experts, such tracing will play an important role in managing the virus once the lockdown comes to an end.
However, this planned technology is adding the weight of the tech companies into the ongoing global conflict between privacy advocates and governments. The former are in favor of a decentralized system for tracing contacts whereas Asian and European governments want to take a centralized approach. This would potentially enable governments to identify who people associate with and there are technical weaknesses inherent as well. As per experts, Google and Apple will be able to provide the public health functions required through a user-friendly and decentralized app. This would mean that the centralized solutions that have been proposed in Germany and Britain would no longer work.
But, in order for it to be effective, millions of people would have to opt in the system that would be introduced by the Silicon Valley companies. This means they would have to trust the safeguards implemented by the companies, along with smooth oversight by the health systems. According to the companies, they had begun working on the technology two weeks back for streamlining the differences between Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone, which has stymied the operation of some of the existing apps for contact tracing.
As per their plans, phones having the said technology would emit unique Bluetooth signals. Anonymous information would be recorded about encounters with phones within six feet range. Those who test positive for the coronavirus would be able to send encrypted lists to Apple and Google of phones they came near to, which would automatically trigger alerts to users who have been potentially exposed. Before the data can be sent, it would require a sign off from public health officials to confirm that an individual has tested positive. The companies said that the data of the infected individuals would be kept anonymous by scrambling the lags.
Hence, even Google, Apple and other contract tracing app makers wouldn’t be able to get any information. The companies also added that GPS location wouldn’t be tracked by their contact tracing system. According to security experts, Apple and Google have finally come up with an approach that seems to mitigate the worst centralization and privacy risks. They also added that the company could add more safeguards to assure people like specifying that contract tracing features will not be used once the pandemic is over. The software tools are planned for a release in mid-May.
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