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APPLE and Google have released an initial version of their proposed technology to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
California Tech Titans have created a framework for a contact tracking app that alerts users who may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.
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Health agencies around the world will be able to use the technology to create applications that help them track the transmission of the disease.
Apple and Google plan to release the final version of their tools in mid-May after developers complete testing.
Contact tracking applications will automatically alert users if they have come into contact with someone infected with the virus.
Systems will accomplish this by using location data collected from millions of phones combined with information on who has been diagnosed and when.
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The idea is to get potentially infected people to be tested or quarantined faster and more reliably than existing systems.
Such tracing will play a vital role in virus management once the blockages end, health experts say.
The Apple and Google framework will not be used to create a UK contact tracking app, as the NHS has chosen to build its own software from scratch.
The two Silicon Valley companies, whose operating systems power 99 percent of the world’s smartphones, had said earlier this month that they would work together to create contact tracking technology.
What is the NHS contact tracking app?
- NHS tech experts are helping develop a phone app that will reveal if you’ve been around someone who has coronavirus.
- It will allow mobile phones to track users who have come into contact with patients and alert them to be tested for the deadly infection.
- Ministers believe that the technology initiative is key to lifting the blockade as quickly as possible.
- According to reports, Health Secretary Matt Hancock is looking for ways to get people to install the app, as at least 60 percent need it to work efficiently.
- One idea being considered is allowing those who do so to resume normal work and family life, reports say.
- It has already been revealed that Apple and Google are teaming up to develop phones that will reveal if you’ve been within two meters of someone with the virus.
- The powerful couple, which operates 99 percent of the world’s smartphones, plans to add new software to make it easier to track down people who may have been infected.
- ‘Tracking contacts’ will play a vital role in managing the deadly virus, according to health experts.
The rare collaboration is expected to accelerate the use of apps around the world that aim to quarantine infected people.
Privacy and performance concerns have been raised for contact tracking applications.
Technology requires a large volume of users to register from any country before they can work effectively.
In the UK, for example, it has been suggested that at least 60 percent of the population needs to download the next NHS app for it to work.
That can be difficult. A recent survey by the University of Maryland and the Washington Post found that nearly three in five Americans are unable or unwilling to use the system that Apple and Google are developing.
Privacy experts have warned that the apps amount to mass surveillance systems that could be abused by governments once the pandemic ends.
Apple and Google argue that all data collected using their framework is anonymous.
One of the main arguments in favor of their solution has been to protect the privacy of users.
However, NHSX, the digital arms of the NHS, has decided to take a different approach.
Apparently, its centralized application will help experts better understand how the virus progresses, although NHSX insists that people will have control over the amount of data they share and the application will remain optional.
Professor Alan Woodward of the Surrey Cyber Security Center at the University of Surrey warned that the UK approach could face some problems.
“Yes, I think there may be a setback, the simple way of saying it, because what Apple doesn’t want is for someone to be building a system that can be used as a tracking system, a generalized tracking system,” he told the news in the AP. agency.
“So, reusing technology later, for example, doesn’t matter now in this data-gathering emergency, but could someone later build technology following the same principles just to use Bluetooth to track people?
“And the point was that iOS was specially built, and later versions of Android are built so you can’t do that.”
He continued: “They (Apple and Google) know that their customer base is global, it is not just about the United States, the United Kingdom or Europe, but the whole world, so they want their users not to think that governments can subvert their operating systems to become trackers.
“Therefore, there is a small danger that it may be rejected.”
“And I think if the UK government is going to sell this to the public, it needs to have those epidemiologists, the public health people, up front and center, which justifies why they need that data.”
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Speaking to the Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, NHSX Executive Director Matthew Gould said the smartphone app designed to help contain the spread of Covid-19 when the blockade measures are eased is “two or two three weeks “to be implemented, starting with a trial in a” small area “in the next few days.
He also said that there are still frequent conversations with Google and Apple.
An NHSX spokesperson said: “Engineers have faced several core challenges for the application to meet public health needs and support detection of contact events well enough, even when the application is in the background, without unduly affecting life. useful battery.
“This has been accomplished using the standard API published by Google and Apple, while adhering to Bluetooth Low Energy Standard 4.0 and higher.”
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In other news, experts warned earlier this month that Apple and Google’s contact tracking apps could pose significant risks to people’s privacy.
Apple Maps may soon reveal its nearest coronavirus testing center.
And, the NHS application itself will reveal if you’ve been around someone who has coronaviruses, and it could be the key to lifting the blockade of Britain.
What do you think of the Google and Apple applications? Let us know in the comments!
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