If you have met someone who has now been confirmed with Coronavirus, or COVID, your phone will be able to notify you and the health authorities. If your logs match any smartphone user who has now been confirmed with COVID, you will see a notification on your phone alerting you about it with steps on what to do next.
APPLE IOS UPDATE CONTACT TRACING BLUETOOTH
These logs will then be downloaded by your smartphone and matched against the logs your phone has collected via Bluetooth tracing over time. These logs will be uploaded with the user’s consent in case they are confirmed to have been infected by Coronavirus, or COVID. All the discovered data shall be kept on the device, which is your smartphone. The two phones, which could be your phone and someone else’s phone in your proximity, will exchange anonymous identifier keys. The contact tracing is essentially a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) service registered with the Bluetooth SIG with 16-bit Universally Unique Identifier, UUID 0xFD6F, that is designed to enable proximity sensing of Rolling Proximity Identifier between devices for the purpose of computing an exposure event.
APPLE IOS UPDATE CONTACT TRACING ANDROID
This will work seamlessly across Android phones and the iPhones.
Apple and Google have also detailed the privacy aspects and how the data will be collected, time and again. The contract tracing solution that uses the Bluetooth technology in iPhones and Android phones, and will allow government and health agencies around the world to track and notify you in case you have met with or have come in close proximity with someone who is now confirmed to have been affected by the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. User adoption is key to success and we believe that these strong privacy protections are also the best way to encourage use of these apps,” Apple and Google said. Each user gets to decide whether or not to opt-in to Exposure Notifications the system does not collect or use location from the device and if a person is diagnosed with COVID-19, it is up to them whether or not to report that in the public health app. “Our technology is designed to make these apps work better.
The API will allow PHAs to define what constitutes an exposure event, the number of exposure events an individual has had, factor transmission risk of positive cases into their definition of an exposure event and data that users voluntarily choose to input into the app allows PHAs to contact exposed users. Apple and Google say 22 countries in five continents have requested and received access to the API, and more are expected to join in the coming weeks. The iOS 13.5 update now rolling out for the Apple iPhone line-up includes this new API, that for public health agencies (PHAs) and the contact tracing apps they make and deploy. Now, that partnership has taken a crucial step forward, with Apple and Google releasing the COVID-19 Exposure Notification API for iPhones and Android phones, something they have been testing for a while now. And perhaps timely too, considering the world is fighting the COVID outbreak. When Apple and Google announced last month that they would be working together to develop one of the most critical tech solutions of all time, that could only be classified as an unprecedented announcement.