Google and Apple teamed up last week to create a decentralized contact tracing tool, which will help people determine if they have been exposed to someone with Coronavirus – COVID-19. Now, both companies have confirmed that they will begin rolling out their new tool's APIs to Android and iOS apps, beginning in mid-May.
While Apple will make the feature available to all iOS 13 devices, Google says it will update the Google Play services with the new software on all devices Android 6.0 Marshmallow and later versions.
During the first phase of the project in the coming weeks, contact tracing APIs will be available for verified public health authorities to incorporate into their official COVID-19 apps.
Google and Apple to launch Coronavirus Tracking API – COVID-19 for Android, iOS next month
The next phase will include the actual system-level contact tracing mechanism, which will work on Android and iOS devices on an optional basis.
That, however, will only start to happen «In the coming months». It's not immediately clear if the software will be open source, but Google says it will offer code audits to companies that want to adopt a similar system.
According to TechCrunch, the technology will use Bluetooth beacons to transmit random, anonymous IDs at short intervals to determine if the user has been in close contact with someone infected with the Coronavirus virus. It will do this by detecting nearby devices belonging to people who have already tested positive.
If the system detects one of those devices in the vicinity, the user is notified, allowing them to get tested and self-quarantine.
However, the technology is already raising privacy concerns, with some experts citing cases in China where the government is allegedly using contact tracing as an excuse to spy on its citizens. For their part, Google and Apple say they are taking all possible precautions to prevent misuse of the new system.
First of all, they say that the API will be restricted only to authorized public health organizations in different countries. Second, data will be decentralized, making it harder for governments to do surveillance.
And you do you think? Will governments abuse this data? Leave a comment below.