The tech giant Google and Apple have announced a major announcement in the wake of the spread of the Corona virus. Together, they have decided to create a contact tracing tool. If you have been in contact with a coronary patient, this technology will inform you on your phone. This will keep the user identity completely confidential.
Together, the two companies will be building a Bluetooth-based Corona virus contact tracking app.
A Bluetooth user will be kept track of who has been the most frequent person in the past few days through a Bluetooth signal. Alert will be sent to user’s mobile if any of these corona test positives come up. When an alert arrives, the user can decide whether to stay in the house or to make a quarantine. This assures you that your Google location or any of your personal information will not be asked for it.
Apple and Google have released a leaflet about this. The letter states, “The privacy, transparency and user consent of our personal information will be of utmost importance in this endeavor. We will make the work details public so that our work can be reviewed by others.”
However, US President Donald Trump has said it needs time to consider it.
Speaking at a White House press conference, Trump said, “This effort is a good one. However, many people are afraid of revealing private information.
The European Union’s Data Protection Supervisor role, however, was overwhelmingly positive. He said, “There is a lot more work to be done. However, at first glance, user consent, data security and pan-European portability seem to be all the more fulfilled.”
However, this contact tracing tool will only benefit people if more people are tested.
Apple has developed iOS operating system while Google is Android based. Most smartphones in the world run on these two operating systems.
Countries such as Singapore, Israel, South Korea and Poland are already using smartphones to provide updates on the Corona virus infection.
The UK, France and Germany are considering developing some tracing tools themselves. So some provinces in the United States are getting ready for a third-party app.
This will bring compatibility with different third party apps for contact tracing. So these apps will be portable. With this portability, even if a person goes abroad for work and comes in contact with someone who uses a different contact tracing app, you will still receive alerts about the Corona virus infection.
Both these companies have been working on this for the past two weeks. Google and Apple say that if countries succeed in developing such an portable tool, then lockdown can be loosened and international borders open to some extent.
