All over the world, governments and health authorities are working together to get rid of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is working hard to protect people. The two tech giant’s come together to fight against this COVID-19. On Friday, Apple and Google announced a system for tracking the spread of the new coronavirus. Allowing users to share data through Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) transmissions and approved apps from health organizations.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Apple and Google shared a theoretical example to explain how it works. Let us consider if two people meet and chat for a few minutes, and in the background, via Bluetooth their smartphones exchange anonymous identifiers to register that they have been in contact. These digital keys change every 15 minutes or so and remain on these people’s devices to preserve privacy.
Several days later, if one of these individuals is diagnosed with COVID-19. The person enters the results into a health-agency app on their phone. The system then asks for this user’s consent. If granted, the person’s smartphone sends a record of the other mobile devices that have been in close contact during the previous days. Meanwhile, the other person’s phone checks the server periodically to see if any identifier keys have been associated with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. The phone downloads all positive keys and matches it anonymously to the key belonging to the individual from the original meeting days earlier. This sends a notification to the other person’s phone with information from health agencies about how to quarantine or self-isolate.
RELEASE PLANS
Both companies have their certain plan to introduce this technology. Apple and Google will release a pair of iOS and Android APIs in mid-May and make sure these health authorities’ apps can implement them. During this phase, users will have to download an app to participate in contact-tracing. Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort. Moreover, they have to look at how this app is going to work in crowded areas or the houses which are very nearby.
Apple and Google have the potential to monitor about a third of the world’s population. So, this app could make a great impact in the upcoming days.