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Cyberthreat.id – Two U.S. tech giants, Apple and Google, worked together to create contact trackers to help combat the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic in various parts of the world.
“In the spirit of this collaboration, Google and Apple announced joint efforts to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and healthcare institutions reduce the spread of viruses,” Google wrote in an official blog post, the Friday (April 10, 2020).
As in general, this system will work on smartphone devices that use Bluetooth signals. However, the main problem when using Bluetooth technology to track the spread of the Covid-19 virus is causing the cell phone battery to drain quickly.
To overcome this problem, Apple and Google use Bluetooth energy saving (LE / Low Energy) to warn users when they are around someone who has been exposed to the corona virus.
This solution will be presented in the form of an application programming interface (API) and tracking technology integrated into the operating system, both Android and iOS.
“Apple and Google will launch a comprehensive solution that includes an application programming interface (API) and operating system level technology to help enable contact tracking.”
Reported TechCrunch, the API system will work when two people are together for a period of time, their smartphones exchange anonymous identifiers.
Then, if one of them is diagnosed positive for Covid-19 and has entered data into the Public Health Authority system that has been integrated by the API, the system will inform the user that they have met a Covid-19 positive patient. .
“Because COVID-19 can be transmitted through proximity to those affected, public health organizations have identified contact tracing as a valuable tool to help curb its spread,” added Google.
However, Google and Apple emphasize ensuring the privacy of users because the data collected is anonymous. The two companies also said they planned to publicly publish their privacy-related work for others to review.
Meanwhile, technology is integrated into each operating system to provide efficiency to users. Therefore, users do not need to download the Covid-19 contact tracking application.
“This is a more robust solution than the API and will allow more people to participate.”
In light of urgent needs, Apple and Google will launch the Covid-19 contact tracking API in May 2020, which works on Android and iOS operating systems. The official application will be available for users to download through their respective application stores, namely the Play Store and the App Store.
The two companies will also integrate Covid-19 contact tracking technology into their respective operating systems, “in the coming months,” Google said.
The collaboration between Apple and Google became very interesting, because both parties competed in the technology business. However, they seem to realize that to eradicate crown buds you cannot be alone, collaboration is needed so that the spread of the crown can be suppressed.
ACLU creates a white paper on location-based contact tracking
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a white paper containing various issues on how location data was collected and how it was used to track the COVID-19 outbreak.
Written by ACLU senior policy analyst Jay Stanley and cybersecurity and surveillance adviser Jennifer Stisa Granick, ACLU questions whether smartphone location tracking technology can really help improve contact tracking during a coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, ACLU believes the location data is not accurate enough for automatic contact tracking or effective enough to know who is in contact.
“Even if we imagine a location data set that has precise precision, there will still be problems in automatically translating that into reliable guesswork as to whether two people are in danger of transmitting the infection,” Stanley and Granick wrote in the report.
ACLU also said that not all cell phones have Bluetooth enabled by default and that Bluetooth itself is not accurate within the recommended distance.
The ACLU also does not completely oppose the use of technology for the purpose of locating contacts in the fight against the coronavirus, but this group emphasizes that any government effort to increase surveillance power during the national crisis should be analyzed.
“Any use of such data should be temporary, limited to public health agencies and purposes, and should use as many techniques as possible available to protect privacy and anonymity even when the data is used.”[]
Publisher: Yuswardi A. Suud
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