Thu 30 April 2020:
Apple and Google would release two early versions this week of their proposed technology to slow coronavirus spread to select developers for testing purposes, the companies said on Wednesday.
According to a report form The Verge, after a test phase started this week the companies are set to release a first version of an application programming interface (API) to some developers working for public health agencies in the weeks ahead.
Those APIs will enable apps to interface with Google and Apple’s data banks to extract things like Bluetooth information gleaned from peoples’ smartphones.
Bluetooth information coupled with testing data will allow future apps to inform people if they’ve come in contact with someone who has been confirmed to carry the virus.
It will be up to public health agencies to determine a threshold for how close and how long a brush with an infected person has to be to constitute a warning notification.
An app would allow public health agencies to alert people who may have been exposed and enable those people to either quarantine or seek testing.
According to a recent survey by Washington Post-University of Maryland, three out of five Americans are either unable or unwilling to use contact tracing technology that uses a phone’s Bluetooth signal to track the spread of COVID-19.
Among the barriers to adoption are a distrust of Google and Apple as well as a lack of general concern over becoming infected from the virus according to the survey.
A recent study by Oxford researchers determined that at least 60 percent of people in any given country would need to adopt the technology in order for it to be effective in assessing the virus’ spread.
Apple and Google plan to release the final version of their tools by mid-May after the developers complete the testing.
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