Google and Apple unveiled a joint initiative on Friday to develop a coronavirus smartphone ‘contact tracing’ tool that could potentially alert people when they have crossed paths with an infected person.
The move brings together the largest mobile operating systems in an effort to use smartphone location technology to track and potentially contain the global COVID-19 outbreak.
The move would allow apps to be created enabling smartphones powered by Apple software and Google-backed Android operating system to exchange information with a joint ‘opt in system’ using Bluetooth wireless technology.
The companies next month plan to release software interface technology to allow for interoperability — so that an alert would work regardless of the operating system.
‘All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems,’ the companies said in a joint statement.
The move comes with governments around the world studying or implementing measures to use smartphone location technology to identify people with the virus and keep them from infecting others, even as the efforts raise privacy and civil liberties concerns.
Apple and Google contended that ‘privacy, transparency, and consent’ were top priorities in the joint initiative, addressing concerns about systems which could disclose personal data on individuals.
‘Contact tracing can help slow the spread of COVID-19 and can be done without compromising user privacy,’ Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a tweet.
Tracking people’s movements using their smartphones, while a temptingly powerful tool for containing the coronavirus comes with privacy concerns and fears regarding how the data might be misused.
‘No contact tracing app can be fully effective until there is widespread, free, and quick testing and equitable access to healthcare. These systems also can’t be effective if people don’t trust them,’ said Jennifer Granick of the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement.
‘People will only trust these systems if they protect privacy, remain voluntary, and store data on an individual’s device, not a centralised repository,’ he added.
