[blackwasp]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the governments, health authorities and software developers to find a solution to tackle this situation. One such collaboration has been announced by Apple and Google.

It has been reported that contact tracing can be an important tool in containing the spread of this virus. To this effect, Apple and Google have announced new APIs and system level integration to assist in this. This will be launched as a 2-step initiative. In the first stage, an API that is interoperable across Android and iOS apps will be released. Apps using the same will be available to download in each of the respective app stores.

In the second stage, both tech giants will work to enable Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform. The collaboration will work with developers, governments and public health providers. As privacy and transparency are important, the information will be openly published for others to analyse.

How the contact tracing will work:


Sample workflow:


Settings menu:


Apple has already rolled out this for the iOS via the 13.5 update:

[alpha1]

All these efforts will prove to be just a metric without much use because almost all countries have progressed into community transmission. Which means till you test yourself you will never know whether you are a carrier or not (and hence till then unable to help the others).

I am not sure if these apps can predict/diagnose the infection.

[Rehaan]

Something I posted on a whatsapp group regarding the similar Aarogya Setu app a few weeks back:

So the app actually works using bluetooth -- which is a relatively smart technological solution compared to the other options...

• Mobile network triangulation = too huge and vague an area
• Wifi = still too big ~100+meters radius
• GPS = doesn't update all the time + not so good indoors
• Bluetooth = Only a ~5-15 meter range - Perfect!

Plus unlike the other options which will require a centralized database to calculate location + time of presence, bluetooth knows a simple yes/no if you were in proximity with someone else at the same time.

However the downside is:

1. Everyone needs to have the app
2. Everyone needs to have their phone with them
3. Bluetooth has to be turned on all the time
4. Phone has to be turned on (not on airplane mode or battery dead)

--- So it's far from an actual solution in real usage.

Coming to the Google/Apple solution, it seems to function similarly.

However, I see the first point of failure right here:


Any manual action simply means that the chances of this system working lower dramatically. Though maybe there will be ways to automate updating the status for COVID+ people in the future, but there goes "anonymity" and "privacy" out of the window.

Right now the manual update is the weakest link.

Kind of like how pointless these Facebook "marked themselves safe" in a Natural Disaster notifications are, because very few actually do it: