In a rare partnership, the two big techs have come together to track COVID-19 spread using the existing Bluetooth technology
As the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded over the past many weeks, one of the most effective ways to control the spread of the pandemic has been the method of “contract tracing.” The term has been coined for the process of finding out how many other people has a COVID-19 patient come into contact with, ever since contracting the infection so that everyone affected to avoid any further community spread. It is one of the most effective tools currently being utilized by countries against the virus.
Astonishing to see how an event like the current pandemic can change the perception of things around us so drastically. Take for example the big techs — in the months and weeks leading up to the pandemic, some of these companies were under intense regulatory scrutiny for their monopolistic behavior and private data handling practices. The same companies are now at the forefront of a battle against COVID-19 and are being lauded for their efforts.
In the most recent development, Google and Apple have developed a new system that would utilize Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) — short-range Bluetooth communications to establish a voluntary contact-tracing network. The data collected this way would be shared with approved apps from health organizations. This novel method would be different from the usual GPS trackers, which basically follow your physical location.
The Bluetooth enabled system would pick up the signals of nearby phones at 5-minute intervals and store the connections between them in a database. Extensive data would be stored on the users’ smartphone, where a person who gets infected with COVID-19 could tell the app that they have been infected. Apps from public health authorities & other people whose phones passed within close range in the preceding days would then be notified immediately.
A visual representation of how the system works has been outlined in the infographic below.
Concerns around personal data sharing have cropped up again, especially with the dubious track record of big techs on this front. But the proposed system has apparently taken a number of steps to prevent people’s personal information from being transmitted. The system shares an anonymous key rather than a public identity. Also, the keys cycle every 15 minutes to preserve privacy. The platform’s white paper also outlines the following steps taken to preserve the identity of individuals.
- Explicit user consent required for data sharing
- No personally identifiable information (PII) or user location data is collected
- Data of people you have been in contact is always stored on your phone and not on any third-party server
- Identity of People who test positive with the virus is not shared with other users, Google or Apple
- Data collected by the platform will only be used for contact tracing by public health authorities for COVID-19 pandemic management
- The system has cross-platform compatibility between an Android phone or an iPhone
Currently, in a trial phase, both the companies intend to release a pair of iOS and Android APIs in mid-May, which can be easily implemented by health authorities’ apps. Meanwhile, users can still download an app to participate in contact-tracing. The big techs eventually want to introduce tracing functionality features in the underlying operating systems.
The system does come with some weaknesses — people in high-density locations who aren’t really sharing a common space with an infected person might be flagged and cause unnecessary worry. Also, the usefulness of the system would be questionable in areas with lower connectivity.
Having said that, the innovative approach can certainly supplement the traditional approach of interviewing an infected person for contact tracing. Why not utilize technology to help with the process, using smartphones already owned by billions of people around the globe.
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April 15, 2020 at 01:50AM
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Apple & Google launch a “contact tracing” smartphone platform - Medium
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