TRACK & TRACE: APPLE & GOOGLE FIGHT COVID-19 TOGETHER

It was a partnership that nobody saw coming, for a virus none of us expected. As Apple and Google’s historic collaboration sees them develop contact tracing tech to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, many are asking how it will work, and how our privacy will be respected.

BREAKTHROUGH SOLUTIONS

In these times of global emergency, nothing is shocking. Not even a joint project between tech giants Apple and Google, who announced in April their plans for a Bluetooth-based universal contact-tracing app that will work across both iOS and Android operating systems. In a press release, the two companies confirmed their intentions to launch the new application programming interface in May. But rather than rolling out a global health tracing system, the firms revealed that health organizations around the world would need to tap into the new APIs and launch their own tracing schemes, country by-country.

The new API, which will be available for free, lets governments build and run apps that take advantage of Bluetooth radios in our phones, keeping track of whether a smartphone owner comes into contact with a citizen who later tests positive for COVID-19. If they do, the user can be alerted and told to isolate or be tested at their nearest facility as soon as possible.

This decentralized project comes in two phases, with the first being an API that health agencies can tap into for their own apps. The second phase is a system-level contact tracing product that works on both operating systems, and for the time being, it will be opt-in only. It is similar to the technology offered in China, which ran inside of the WeChat ecosystem and gave each citizen a QR code to prove whether or not they had been tested for the virus, allowing some to return to work or enter a supermarket without first having to be screened.