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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.
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The Sunday Times reports that ministers believe the technology initiative is key to lifting the blockade as quickly as possible.
NHSX, the tech wing of health services, is now working at “breakneck speed” with tech giants Apple and Google, sources said.
“We believe this is important in helping the country return to normal,” revealed a Whitehall source.
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 life at home, 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 pair, 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.
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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.
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.
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Apple and Google plan to launch software tools in mid-May to contact tracking applications that they and public health authorities approve.
Google said the tools and updates will not be available where its services are blocked, such as in China or on unofficial Android devices.
Apple will distribute the technology as an update to its iPhone operating system.
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