Apple and Google team up to develop phones that reveal if you’ve been around someone who has coronavirus

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APPLE and Google team up to develop phones that will reveal if you’ve been within two meters of someone who has coronavirus.

The tech giants, which operate 99 percent of the world’s smartphones, plan to add new software to make it easier to track down people who may have been infected.

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Apple and Google have teamed up to create virus detection technologyCredit: Getty Images – Getty

According to health experts, ‘contact tracing’ will play a vital role in managing the deadly virus once the shutdown orders finally come to an end.

The system will work by broadcasting unique Bluetooth signals, and then phones within two meters can record information about your encounters.

Those who test positive for coronavirus may choose to send an encrypted list of the phones that Apple and Google approached.

The system will trigger alerts for those who have been potentially exposed to the deadly infection.

Phone users will receive alerts if they have been around someone infectedCredit: AFP – Getty

Doctors would then have to confirm that a person has tested positive for COVID-19 before they can send the data.

The rare collaboration should speed up the use of applications that aim to get potentially infected people to be tested or quarantined more quickly and reliably.

The records will be encrypted to keep the data of infected people anonymous.

However, to be effective, the system would require millions to opt for the technology and, therefore, rely on companies’ security safeguards.

Apple and Google said their contact tracking system will not track the location of the GPS.

“With Apple and Google, you get all the public health features you need with a decentralized, privacy-friendly app,” said Michael Veale, a professor at University College London involved in the European DP3T contact location system.

The companies said they began developing the technology two weeks ago to optimize the technical differences between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android.

“To their credit, Apple and Google have announced an approach that appears to mitigate the worst risks of privacy and centralization,” said Jennifer Granick, cybersecurity adviser to the American Civil Liberties Union.