It may sound unsettling or even downright creepy for the device thats generally with you 24/7 to make it possible for authorities to trace your exposure to a potentially fatal illness thats currently consuming the world. Thats why Apple and Google have been bending over backward to provide privacy assurances about the platform-compatible programming interfaces theyre putting into iOS and Android. On Monday, they offered new details, as well as images of the push notifications users might receive should they have come into contact with someone who later tests positive for COVID-19.
Among the assurances provided is that apps that use the application programming interfaces can only be developed by or for public health authorities and that the limited amount of information they can collect may be used solely for tracing COVID-19 infections. Apps will be barred from seeking location permissions and must collect the least amount of data possible to trace the physical contacts of other opt-in app users who later find out theyre infected. None of the data collected may be used for any commercial purposes.
Besides the assurances, the companies gave a sneak peak of the permissions users must provide and the look of push exposure notifications to be delivered to a users phone. Here are the images:
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Effective but risky (and costly)
Health experts have said that contact tracing—or the process of tracing all the people an infected person has come into physical contact with over the previous 14 days—is one of the most effective ways to contain exposure to the novel coronavirus. Once identified, people exposed can be monitored or go into quarantine for the next two weeks.
To date, US and worldwide infections have reached 1.2 million and 3.6 million, respectively, with 68,000 and 1.2 million deaths. The Trump administration recently projected deaths in this country would range from 100,000 to 200,000.
While contact tracing is one of the best hopes for keeping the numbers as low as possible, its extremely time and work intensive, since it traditionally requires large numbers of health workers to perform interviews. The practice is also prone to eRead More – Source
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arstechnica
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