Apple and Google Reveals New Approach to Track Coronavirus
A ground breaking partnership between Apple and Google attempts to reduce the spread of the virus
The coronavirus pandemic has hit the world economy hard, and everyone is looking for ways to help save lives and revive businesses across the world. An effort is being made in this regard by Google and Apple as the companies have joined forces to use Bluetooth technology for helping to track coronavirus. Here’s how it will work.
To track coronavirus spread and help flatten the curve, the companies will use Bluetooth Low Energy and apps made by health organizations. Every time a user’s phone comes within the close range of another device for more than a few seconds, the data of this phone would be stored in a database.
Health authorities will be able to access this data after getting appropriate approvals from the users to track coronavirus. If someone who agrees to share their data and tests positive for this disease, they will be tracked, and other people who have shared their data and come in close contact with an infected person will be notified of the same.
The technology to help track coronavirus will be offered as an API and will work on Android and iOS operating systems. Every user who wants to benefit from this technology will need to download an app and ensure that they register to participate in contact tracing. Soon, the feature will be upgraded to ensure that it can be activated on every smartphone.
Though this invention is a great step in the right direction, it is arriving a bit late. If launched earlier, it could have saved more lives and helped more people to prepare for coronavirus.
This technology helps non-infected people to stay away from infected people and prevent them from infecting other people.
Privacy of users will be kept in mind even when using this technology to track coronavirus. Contact tracing will not track location data via GPS, but it will store a database of other devices that a user comes in contact with. The use of Bluetooth to contact trace will broadcast an anonymous key that will change every 15 minutes rather than using your identity. Similarly, the database will store shared keys instead of interaction between devices or any form of identifiable data.
