Google, Apple to Roll Out COVID-19 Tracking API for Android, iOS Next Month

Google and Apple last week joined hands to create a decentralized contact tracing tool that will help individuals determine whether they have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. At present, both companies take confirmed that they will begin rolling out the APIs of their new tool for Android and iOS apps, starting mid-May. While Apple will make the feature available to all iOS 13 devices, Google says information technology volition update Google Play Services with the new software on all Android devices running half dozen.0 Marshmallow and above.

During the first stage of the project in the coming weeks, the contact tracing APIs will be made bachelor to verified public health authorities to be incorporated into their official COVID-19 apps, like the Corona Kavach and Arogya Setu apps from the Indian government. The next phase will include the actual organization-level contact tracing mechanism that will work across Android and iOS devices on an opt-in basis. That, however, volition only first happening "in the coming months". It's not immediately articulate whether the software volition be open-sourced, just Google says that it volition offer code audits to companies that want to adopt a similar organization.

According to TechCrunch, the technology will use Bluetooth beacons to transmit anonymous and randomized IDs over short ranges to determine whether the user has been in close contact with anyone infected with the novel virus. It volition exercise and then past detecting nearby devices belonging to folks who accept already tested positive for the novel coronavirus. If the system detects any such device in close proximity, the user is notified, enabling them to get tested and to self-quarantine.

However, the technology is already raising privacy concerns, with some experts citing cases in China where the government is allegedly using contact tracing every bit an excuse to spy on its citizens. On their parts, Google and Apple claim that they are taking all possible precautions to foreclose misuse of the new organization. Firstly, they say that the API will be restricted only to authorized public health organizations in dissimilar countries. Secondly, the data will be decentralized, making information technology difficult for governments to carry surveillance.