Google and Apple Tracing System and the Privacy Issues

On Monday, the United States President, Donald Trump, commented on a joint contact tracing project. The mutual contact tracing project includes Google and Apple. It will harness Android and iOS devices for tracking the spread of COVID-19. He also said the system is impressive. Nevertheless, he added that it is raising unspecified constitutional problems.

Journalists asked the United States President Donald Trump about the new contract tracing method. It almost became a daily White House press briefing from the Coronavirus Task Force.

The Google-Apple partnership specializes in APIs. They are using Bluetooth communications for determining the proximity between Android and iOS devices. Thus, they use anonymized information stored locally on a host device. Moreover, the system can maintain a rolling database of contracts. The contacts can be cross-referenced with server-side information for pinpointing potential exposure to users with COVID-19.

The United States President, Donald Trump, said that this is a fantastic thing. Nevertheless, some people have substantial constitutional problems with it. As Trump announced, other countries are thinking about using something similar but not as high quality.

Moreover, someone asked him if he would prefer Americans to use another tracking method, which is similar to that which other countries are using. Trump answered that he does not want to get into that cause; they have a whole constitutional thing.

Moreover, The United States President Donald Trump said that they have more of a constitutional problem rather than a mechanical one. Nevertheless, they will determine that problem. As he says, over the next four weeks they are going to discuss the issue with a lot of people.

Google and Apple Project

The very last statement was an apparent reference to Google’s and Apple’s contact tracing initiative.

Some of the significant European wireless carriers agreed to share customer geographic location data with the European Commission in March. It will be a project for tracking the spread of COVID-19. Nevertheless, critics are voicing concerns over the potentially intrusive nature of the measure. They say that a centralized database of location information can easily lead to a surveillance state—however, Government officials say that not that all data collection operations are anonymous. Moreover, once the crisis subsides, the resulting information will be destroyed.

Trump did not specify what the concerns are about the Google-Apple solution. Nevertheless, to maintain high levels of transparency, data, and privacy protection, both companies have made clear their intent.

Earlier today, Google and Apple explained that the contract tracing system requires explicit content of users at multiple stages in the process. Moreover, the contract tracing system doesn’t collect identifiable information; instead, it anonymizes collected identifiers via Bluetooth. The order temporarily stores contact lists on the devices and only shares news with authorities of public health upon user request. Moreover, the company does not have access to the program, and the data will be disabled once it has served its purpose.

Google and Apple plan to initiate the first phase of the contract tracing program.

All in all, Google and Apple are working hard to solve this issue. Nevertheless, some details need to be concluded. Let’s hope that system will help to battle coronavirus.