Lots of people have been wondering about this one, and it is in the works. Apple and Google are building a framework within the operating system itself that will allow app makers to create systems that will track phones around you, and alert you if someone was ill in your proximity.
Contact Tracing Coming In May
Here are three notes CNBC has on this.
- Governments can’t force their citizens to use contact tracing technology built by Apple and Google, senior company representatives said on Monday.
- Google and Apple plan to release software to automate contact tracing in May, using the Bluetooth features on iPhones and Android phones.
- Google and Apple are responsible for the two dominant mobile operating systems globally, iOS and Android, which together run on almost 100% of smartphones sold.
The backend operating software is coming out in May, that is just weeks away. This tells me they have been working on this for some time, and will now be rolling it out. I would love to know all the details behind this, it is almost like the system has been waiting for an opportunity to arise. Sort of like 9/11s Patriot Act? Nah, couldn’t be.
How Does It Work?
The Verge helps us understand the specifics.
In basic terms, this system lets your phone log other phones that have been nearby. As long as this system is running, your phone will periodically blast out a small, unique, and anonymous piece of code, derived from that phone’s unique ID. Other phones in range receive that code and remember it, building up a log of the codes they’ve received and when they received them.
When a person using the system receives a positive diagnosis, they can choose to submit their ID code to a central database. When your phone checks back with that database, it runs a local scan to see whether any of the codes in its log match the IDs in the database. If there’s a match, you get an alert on your phone saying you’ve been exposed.
The signals are transmitted and received from your phone using a low energy Bluetooth signal, or BLE.
Then What?
This is not a pro-active tool. This is a reactive tool. Since you are being alerted that you have been exposed, how does that help you? If you are exposed, then you have to wait and see if you become sick. Yet, there is nothing that can be done to prevent you from becoming sick at that point. The only thing that it will cause is unneeded stress and worry. Oh, and of course, your phone will now update the database letting whomsoever know you may be infected.
This is not science fiction, this is our new reality.
In my opinion, this is a tool government will eventually use against each and every one of us. This does not benefit the people. Worse yet, this has been pressed upon us over COVID-19 which has killed just over 20,000 people, while Seasonal Flu has killed over 40,000.
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Will It Be An App?
The Verge has more.
Sort of. In the first part of the project (aimed to be finished by mid-May), the system will be built into official public health apps, which will send out the BLE signals in the background. Those apps will be built by state-level health agencies not tech companies, which means the agencies will be in charge of a lot of important decisions about how to notify users and what to recommend if a person has been exposed.
Notice, it will be the government who will create and maintain the apps. This is more big government intervention all in the name of peace and safety.
The report continues,
Eventually, the team hopes to build that functionality directly into the iOS and Android operating systems, similar to a native dashboard or a toggle in the Settings menu. But that will take months, and it will still prompt users to download an official public health app if they need to submit information or receive an alert.
Conclusion
While COVID-19 is not the threat it has been made out to be, it has been used to bring about new security measures that will never go away.
While these apps can be downloaded by our choosing, at some point, they will be built into the operating system itself. The user will have the choice to turn it on or off.
That is all the official verbiage.