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Apple and Google joined forces to combat the spread of COVID-19 by introducing their cross-platform API called Exposure Notification to help accelerate the development of applications that track people with positive coronavirus results in each country. Of course, while this may sound great for fighting infection, it’s a privacy concern for many people. That is why both companies have compiled a list of requirements.
Firstly, the API can only be used for the development of applications for the official government public health authority to stop the spread of COVID-19. Also, you can’t use location tracking, you can only take advantage of Bluetooth to discover contacts.
This is because Bluetooth can work indoors and is enough to detect if you have been around an infected person. There are some apps that have been released in some countries that rely on location services: Apple and Google say they will stay in their app stores, but cannot use the API.
Once the application is installed, the explicit consent of the user will be required to transmit the positive test result or any related information. No other information should be released to maintain users’ privacy.
As for the tests, they must be linked with a unique number, which in turn would be used by the user to register in the application. The tests with the unique number must be approved by the official government body. This would eliminate the possibility of people transmitting false test results that have not been approved by public health agencies or those who “self-report.”
However, there could only be one application per country, as it would avoid fragmentation. There are some cases where the country may decide to divide the apps by region and in this case Apple and Google will cooperate and make sure the right app appears in that region when user search for it.
Sample UI
The two tech giants also have a plan to launch a system-level notification feature sometime this year. For now, the API should work fine and they even released a sample for the user interface. This is what your local application can look like.
Sample UI
The API would be available only to developers designated by their local government to make an application. Apple and Google will make the complete source code available to those developers to speed up the process.
Sample UI
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