Coronavirus app problems appear rocky track without technology from Apple and Google
A government official told Reuters that Colombia has removed
the contact tracking feature in its official app to inform residents of the new
coronavirus after it crashes, but aims to rebuild using reliable technology from
Google and Alphabet's Google.
Actions not previously reported by the Colombian government
are adding to an increasing number of Apple-Google country accounts and
dropping alternatives aimed at helping them reduce the disease outbreak faster.
Contact tracking includes identifying, testing, and
isolating people who are vulnerable to the virus before transmitting it to
others, something that governments have said globally is vital to keeping their
economies open safely until vaccine becomes available.
Experts say apps that tap on Bluetooth sensors in
smartphones to discover encounters with those who have proven positive results
can speed up the process.
But some governments that had planned to press ahead with
such applications without the help of American tech giants, had to turn around.
The Australian Communications Tracking app chief told
Senators on Tuesday that his team was moving to Apple-Google about a bug
internal solution, and the government agency behind the upcoming UK app
revealed in a contract signed on Tuesday that it was asking engineers to test
the Apple-Google system amid concerns about Privacy about a pre-planned
alternative.
Decisions have widespread implications for using smartphone
apps to record interpersonal meetings to facilitate finding and alerting those
who crossed paths with a virus carrier.
Apple and Google have said that their Bluetooth technology
will work more easily than the alternatives and that consumers will trust it
because the companies prohibit the collection by the government of the GPS
location for the users of the application and other personal data.
Apple and Google prohibit the use of location tracking in contact tracking apps
Many governments, including France, the United Kingdom, and
some US states, claim that Apple and Google's privacy protections prevent
robust analysis of the data needed to slow the spread of the virus.
But Colombia's struggle to use alternative technology
highlights the challenges ahead of governments that are reluctant to accept the
terms of Apple and Google.
"Certainly, several lessons have been learned in this process,"
Colombian Presidential Adviser Victor Munoz told Reuters.
Roadblocks on iPhones
The Colombian government is feeling good on its way with its
CoronApp app, which was downloaded by 4.3 million people on May 2 and also
includes functionality to report symptoms and find out where the cases are on
the map.
But CoronApp dropped the contact tracking feature last month
just days after its launch.
Apple and Google, the leaders in smartphone operating
systems, allow government contact tracking apps to bypass their technologies. But
without it, iPhones do not send a readable Bluetooth signal when locked, a
feature designed to prevent tracking and save battery power.
Contact tracking apps are useless unless at least half of
the population has downloaded them, and iPhone usage is too large in most
countries to be ignored.
So, CoronApp used an alternative technology from the
Portuguese company HypeLabs, which sells networking technology for gaming
applications and other companies, which aims to overcome Bluetooth restrictions
on the iPhone.
But Munoz said that Colombia faced multiple challenges with
the HypeLabs-based contact tracking feature, including the inaccuracy of
recording contacts using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Munoz added that Colombia needed a better way "to
reduce the risk of generating unnecessary alerts" and decided to align
CoronApp with Apple-Google technology instead.
He said that his team met with representatives of Apple and
Google and was studying their technology.
"It is very important for us to evaluate any alternative that can help the government make better decisions," Munoz said.
HypeLabs said that it is still in discussions with many
other countries.
Randall Bargood, CEO of the Australian Digital
Transformation Agency, said on Tuesday that the country's COVIDSafe app was
having more and more trouble recording meetings the more the iPhone was locked.
"The big shift in Bluetooth performance will be the point where we can benefit from the new Apple-Google Bluetooth management software," he told Senators.
Apple and Google started last month working on a common
solution to the problem of device communication. But their offer, which will
not be available for use until mid-May, prevents governments from compiling databases
of people's movements.
Colombia is one of many governments that had been hoping to
collect this site data for use in detecting coronavirus hotspots as companies
may need to close or clean them deeply.
Apple and Google could fall short
Other developers are stepping forward to build
contact-tracking apps without Apple-Google. Silicon Valley giants only state
their tools for government communication tracking applications. But many
developers have told Reuters they are sending requests from large companies
that want applications for their workplaces.
Jamison Day, founder of Safe2, an app that uses HypeLabs technology to enable exposure notification, said: "We've spoken to a professional sports team, food supply chain companies, a car sales agency, and a non-profit."
Experts said that only using bluetooth can fail. Arashi
Prasad, professor of computer science at Skidmore College, said that the
coronavirus can spread through shared objects such as tables, and two people
sitting in the same place will not be captured by an hour by Apple-Google
Bluetooth.
Privacy activists have praised the protections provided by
Apple and Google, noting there are legitimate concerns about how data is
misused from contact tracking apps by governments.
Whether consumers trust trusted officials or Apple and
Google to improve the protection of data collected through contact tracking
remains a key question, with varying answers globally.
Carlos Lee, co-founder of HypeLabs, said he continues to
send inquiries from government officials, who have declined to be named, and
who have reservations about the embrace of Apple and Google.
"When the whole world is looking at a problem, it's
always better than just one or two private companies looking at it," Lee
told Reuters.
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