Apple and Google want to use your Smartphone to track the spread of Covid-19

H Apple, and Google they marginalize their differences, and now work together to create a single contact detection system with Covid-19.

Η solution suggested by the companies will work with Smartphone monitoring. So your smartphone will act as an anonymous beacon, using Bluetooth along with its platforms iOS and Android to supply this tracking system with location information.

As you move and interact with different people, you will exchange anonymous identification keys as reported by official documentation .

When a person tests positive for the new coronavirus, the result of this test will be recorded in an application that will be created by the public health authorities in each country (not necessarily an application of Apple and Google).

Anyone who has been in contact with someone who is positive for Covid-19 will be notified immediately - but will not be able to name the person who is positive for Coronavirus, for reasons of privacy and data protection.

The idea is that this joint platform from Apple and Google will act as a detector of possible coronavirus infection and transmission to others, but while you will not be able to detect the source of a possible encounter with coronavirus, you will receive a notification that informs you that you should now take the virus test yourself.

This contact tracking system should be up and running in the coming months, according to a joint statement by Apple and Google. In May, the two companies will release a special API to enable this interface between devices running Android and iOS, to collaborate and update applications released by public health authorities.

What about privacy?

While China and South Korea have already successfully used similar smartphone apps to track the spread of Covid-19, proposals for equivalent methods in the US and the UK, but also in Europe in general, have been met with skepticism. People are (rightly) concerned about how they will be monitored but also about the consequences of such a monitoring system, as it could be used in the future to monitor them even after the coronavirus pandemic has stopped.

Apple and Google have created some privacy safeguards in their system, and as they say, this system will not collect personally identifiable information or location data and the list of people they meet will not be known on anyone's device.

But regardless of the assurances of the companies, it makes sense for all of us to raise many questions - questions and concerns about all of the above, as we pass willingly or unwillingly into a new era of great Big Brother who will follow us on foot.

Even if all this is done only with our consent, it is certain that the panic that exists around the world with the coronavirus pandemic, may lead us to the "forced" acceptance of the conditions that are now set by all societies and companies for Our "protection".

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