Mandatory Vaccines & Useless Tracking apps for Coronavirus
KEY POINTS
Contact-tracing apps alert people who’ve come into close proximity with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19.
The apps have faced setbacks, not least because some countries refused to adopt tools created by Apple and Google.
But though the rollout of such apps has gotten off to a rocky start, researchers think they’re still worth pursuing.
Germany’s coronavirus contact-tracing app, Corona-Warn, is displayed on an iPhone in Berlin on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Germany’s coronavirus contact-tracing app, Corona-Warn, is displayed on an iPhone in Berlin on Tuesday, June 16, 2020.
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Coronavirus contact-tracing apps were meant to play a significant role in how some countries dealt with the spread of the disease. But so far, they’ve had a limited impact.
The apps alert people who come into close proximity with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, the idea being that the “contacts” of that sufferer would then get tested and self-isolate.
They were once heralded as a crucial part of some countries’ plans to lift their lockdown restrictions. In the U.K., for instance, this type of app was regularly referred to in the daily coronavirus briefings, however now the government is playing down its significance and has had to completely revamp it.
Many of these apps rely on Bluetooth technology to send out notifications when two smartphone owners approach each other. Some of them even track location data through GPS. But early in the development of such platforms, campaigners flagged major concerns over how they would approach privacy.
Enter Apple and Google. In April, the companies set out to introduce a “decentralized” framework for contact-tracing apps that would aim to both protect user data and ensure they still work once people start traveling abroad. While Apple is often praised for taking user privacy seriously, Google has been a particular target for criticism over tech platforms’ shortcomings on data protection. All of a sudden, it was winning plaudits for an apparent commitment to ensuring privacy by design.
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