On Wednesday, Apple and Google jointly announced the release of a coronavirus exposure notification system. It is a unified programming interface that will help public health officials to develop their own COVID-19 contact tracing apps. The tech giants are not creating applications and both the companies stated that starting from today, they have made their Exposure Notifications system available to public health departments on Android as well as iOS.
Apple and Google stated that today their technology is in the hands of public health organizations across the globe and the companies will continue to support their battle against coronavirus. Whenever you download and enable a coronavirus contact tracing app, you will receive a notification from the app if you are exposed to an infected person. But, the coronavirus-positive-person should also have the app-enabled on their smartphone for this system to work efficiently.
The new system is not meant to replace traditional human-to-human tracing, rather the system is meant to argument it. Digital contact tracing is fast and requires less resources as compared to traditional contact tracing. The digital system can also make it simple to track contact with strangers as digital contact tracing does not rely on a person’s memory.
However, people will have to download and enable these types of apps on their smartphones if we want these apps to be effective. It is also yet not clear if Americans will be willing to download such applications on their smartphones. A model created by the University of Oxford suggests that around 60% of the people will have to download digital contact tracing applications for such apps to be effective. However, fewer download rates may still have a positive impact.
For such a higher adoption rate, Americans will have to trust that public health agencies will protect their private health data. You may wonder how these contact tracing apps will verify positive coronavirus tests, and guard against individuals flooding the digital system with fake positives.
Operating together to design the contact tracing system implies that Android and iOS apps and apps from various regions will have to be able to recognize each other. You will have to consent to make your data available to health agencies while using these contact tracing apps, and you can also turn off the option. Your data will be kept private and Google and Apple will not monetize the information that comes out of the exposure notification technology.
Read next: Facebook Plans to Reopen Offices in July
Apple and Google stated that today their technology is in the hands of public health organizations across the globe and the companies will continue to support their battle against coronavirus. Whenever you download and enable a coronavirus contact tracing app, you will receive a notification from the app if you are exposed to an infected person. But, the coronavirus-positive-person should also have the app-enabled on their smartphone for this system to work efficiently.
The new system is not meant to replace traditional human-to-human tracing, rather the system is meant to argument it. Digital contact tracing is fast and requires less resources as compared to traditional contact tracing. The digital system can also make it simple to track contact with strangers as digital contact tracing does not rely on a person’s memory.
However, people will have to download and enable these types of apps on their smartphones if we want these apps to be effective. It is also yet not clear if Americans will be willing to download such applications on their smartphones. A model created by the University of Oxford suggests that around 60% of the people will have to download digital contact tracing applications for such apps to be effective. However, fewer download rates may still have a positive impact.
For such a higher adoption rate, Americans will have to trust that public health agencies will protect their private health data. You may wonder how these contact tracing apps will verify positive coronavirus tests, and guard against individuals flooding the digital system with fake positives.
Operating together to design the contact tracing system implies that Android and iOS apps and apps from various regions will have to be able to recognize each other. You will have to consent to make your data available to health agencies while using these contact tracing apps, and you can also turn off the option. Your data will be kept private and Google and Apple will not monetize the information that comes out of the exposure notification technology.
Read next: Facebook Plans to Reopen Offices in July
