Apple and Google have decided to intervene. The two big companies have just announced the creation of a monitoring system that will be integrated into iOS and Android. The idea? Make available to the health authorities tools that allow the development of applications to try to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Individually, Google and Apple have decided to standardize a system based on Bluetooth LE so that mobile devices serve as a trace of possible infections. With this standard, both companies will allow applications for Android and iOS to be quickly developed that, depending on the people we have approached, can notify us if any of them has tested positive for coronavirus so that we can take the appropriate measures. This is what we know about the new project that will start rolling this May.
How the system will work
The operation of the system, as published by Google and Apple, will be as follows:
When two people are physically close, their phones will exchange identifier codes for Bluetooth. These are "anonymous" codes that will also change from time to time.
Each phone will keep two lists: one with the codes of their own sent to other phones of close people and the other with the codes received by close people.
If a person tests positive for COVID-19 and so indicates it in an official application of a healthcare organization, their identification codes will automatically be uploaded to the cloud (those that the infected user's mobile has been sharing in the last 14 days).
Periodically, all mobiles download the identification codes of the users who have tested positive for COVID-19 from the cloud and compare them with the identification codes received from other people who have them stored.
If on your mobile phone there is a match between the third-party codes that you have stored (those shared by the people with whom you have come across) and one of those that have tested positive on COVID-19, an app could send you a message alert alerting you that you have been near a person infected and provide you with more information on what to do next.
A common standard for iOS and Android in several phases
The joint statement of the two companies shows the intention to launch this project as soon as possible, joining efforts "together with governments and health authorities." The first step of this initiative will be to create an API for both iOS and Android that allows different applications to access these trace tools securely and natively. This API will be available in May, and the various monitoring applications will be able to make use of this system.
This API will be familiar to both operating systems so that they can work centrally. That is, the trace will be detected regardless of whether a user has an iPhone or an Android mobile. The second step will be to create a system-level solution. A contact tracking platform based on Bluetooth connections. A system that has already been implemented in solutions like Singapore's TraceTogether app. Because it will be integrated into the operating system itself, all applications that take advantage of this system will be able to connect regardless of the government that uses them.
The tracking system will record who you have been in contact with, but "this information will never come off the phone." People who have tested positive will not be identified by other users, or by Google or Apple, they explain. Tracking data will only be used to keep track of who you have been in contact with and will only be used by health authorities.
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