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With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, many big tech giants are trying to develop smart tools for tracking. Many websites are providing updated information about the coronavirus cases at both national and international levels. The development of apps has taken place that are marking zones with different colors to clarify the impact of the spread.

But, Apple and Google are trying to come up with something more innovative. From the beginning, these two companies are trying to help people in many ways to keep them safe during the outbreak. For example, Google launched new features in Google Maps to show the nearest takeaways, Apple is launching new products to help users stay connected, etc. This time, the two companies together have come up with a coronavirus tracking system for both IOS and Android.

Revealed more information

Yesterday, both Apple and Google have shared more information on their contact tracing system. The company explained the design of the user interfaces for potential applications. Thorough explanations were carried out on how the users will get automatic information. Also, how data will be shared between a large network of mobile phones without putting a person’s privacy in jeopardy. Yesterday, the companies have also shared a library of reference code, namely, an SDK toolkit (for Android) and an Xcode toolkit (for iOS). This will help the building of applications by health authorities with an embedded contact tracing system.  

How the contact tracing system will work?

The companies announced the contact tracing system in April. It is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of the disease. The idea is to notify people if he or she came in contact with an infected person and thus stopping people from transmitting further. And, to build this system, the companies decided to transmit data through short-range Bluetooth communication.

Since the application will get access to the user’s private data, the concern for privacy is obvious. But, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google confirmed that user’s privacy won’t be compromised. The system will be designed in such a way that it will protect the user’s privacy and notify them about positive cases as well.

The launch of the new app

When the joint venture started in April, the companies decided to launch the app for both iOS and Apple during mid-May. The companies wanted to make sure that the application of the health authorities can also use it. So, the users need to download the app and participate in the procedure of contact tracing. The most unique part of this system is using Bluetooth Low Energy Transmissions to share data.

So, the app won’t be tracking your physical location as GPS does. At an interval of 5 minutes, your phone will pick up the signals of the nearby phones and store it in a database. So, if any of these people are tested positive with COVID-19, then they can update it on their phone. Every other phone that was near it will be notified henceforth.

Rules for using this application

Apple and Google together have also set many ground rules that any applications should maintain while using it. For the private sector partners, they can use the system only for the response efforts of COVID-19. They will need prior permission or in better words opt-in consent to access the API or share a positive diagnosis. The app will neither allow using location services nor any targeted advertisement.

In case health agencies already have existing apps that use either of these mentioned above, they need to turn them off before accessing API.

UK’s contact tracing app without Apple and Google

Every nation is trying to build contact tracing applications to notify people and prevent the spread of the virus as much as possible. Recently, U.K has launched the beta version of an application that is built on the concept of contact tracing. But, the user interface of the app is very poor and the overall design is ineffective as well.

It will be hard to build a contact tracing system followed by an application without the help of tech giants like Apple and Google. Moreover, if the time taken is longer, the cases will increase rapidly. But, unfortunately, the U.K. is not a big fan of decentralizing data. Many experts have said that the app U.K. is planning to use is not so reliable for tracking COVID-19.