- UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is going forward with an iPhone and Android app for coronavirus contact tracing.
- The government has refused to use the Apple-Google solution to track the potential contacts of a COVID-19 patient.
- The Apple-Google app has strong built-in privacy provisions and doesn’t store user data on a central server, as the UK government plans to do.
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Knowing where new COVID-19 patients got the novel coronavirus from will be crucial for easing social distancing measures and reopening the economy. That also includes warning all the contacts of a patient they may have been exposed to the virus. And it’s why New Zealand’s announcement that the country doesn’t have coronavirus community spreading is so important. In theory, New Zealand might be in a place where any new COVID-19 patient could be traced back to the person that infected them. In practice, things might be more difficult, and that’s because of the way the virus operates. SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious, and symptoms may appear only after 14 days from infection if they show up at all. Many people are asymptomatic, but they are still contagious.
That’s why the only way contact tracing can be done with some sort of success is with the help of technology. Apple and Google have devised a Bluetooth-based system that works on iPhone and Android to help authorities track contacts. The COVID-19 API the two giants have developed is also more private than alternatives, but some governments aren’t happy with that. France, Germany, and the UK have voiced concerns about the Apple-Google app, but Germany then decided to ditch its home-grown app in favor of the Apple-Google solution. A response from France on the matter isn’t clear, but the UK is going forward with its own app.
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UK doesn’t want to use Apple’s and Google’s coronavirus contact tracing solution originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 29 Apr 2020 at 07:31:16 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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