Coronavirus: Apple and Google join forces to create app that warns users of exposure to virus
The coronavirus pandemic is bringing two rival tech giants together. Apple and Google have announced that they are going to work together to track the spread of the new virus.
The companies will put their technological expertise to use by creating a contact tracing platform. This platform, which will use Bluetooth technology, will warn users if they have crossed paths with an infected person.
"To help public health officials slow the spread of #COVID19, Google & @Apple are working on a contact tracing approach designed with strong controls and protections for user privacy. @tim_cook and I are committed to working together on these efforts," tweeted Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
"Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate the return of everyday life," Google said in a blog post.
They are hoping to get the platform up and running by May 1, 2020. It is expected to work on both Android and iOS software. "These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores," Google said. In the coming months, they will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform.
This app, unlike other digital contact tracing platforms, will not use GPS location data. Therefore, it will not pick up data on people's physical location. Instead, it will catch signals from nearby phones every five minutes and store them in a database.
To use the app, smartphone users will have to register themselves on it. A COVID-19 positive person will have to feed their test result into the app. The app, in turn, will alert people who have come into contact with the infected individual.
However, there is one issue with digital contact tracing: privacy issues. The duo is creating the app factoring concerns on privacy, transparency, and consent. The app will not reveal the names of the infected person -- but will only alert other users of possible contact.
Commenting on the privacy issues surrounding these apps, US President Donald Trump said during a press briefing Friday: "It's very new, new technology, it's very interesting but a lot of people worry about it in terms of a person's freedom. We're going to take a look at that."
The US government is hoping to use digital contact tracing apps. North Dakota has already launched its digital contact tracing app.
Similarly, US researchers have come up with a project called NextTrace, which will digitize contact tracing. "If people do not encounter each other, they cannot spread infection, regardless of whether they are infected or not," explains Trevor Bedford, an infectious disease modeler and genomics expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, who runs NextTrace.
Earlier, researchers from Oxford University made the case for digital contact tracing. “Traditional manual contact tracing procedures are not fast enough for [the new coronavirus],” they wrote in a study. But digital technology “can make contact tracing and notification instantaneous," they wrote.