Apple, Google Collaborate on COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Apps

Rivals Apple and Google are cooperating to develop COVID-19 contact-tracing through smartphone apps that will be interoperable between their two operating systems, they said Friday. It's to help governments and health agencies “reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design,” they said. Both companies will launch application programming interfaces next month that using apps from public health authorities, available for free downloads at the App Store and Google Play. They will work in coming months “to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms,” they said. “This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate.” An Oxford University study last month advocates apps linked to a central server as a speedier way to do contact tracing than manual tracing (see 2003310016). Apple and Google said the service would incorporate several privacy safeguards, including requiring user opt-in. But no contact-tracing apps can be effective “if people don’t trust them,” said Jennifer Granick, ACLU surveillance and cybersecurity counsel. “People will only trust these systems if they protect privacy, remain voluntary, and store data on an individual's device, not a centralized repository.” Though the Apple and Google approach “appears to mitigate the worst privacy and centralization risks,” privacy advocates will “remain vigilant” to be sure any contact-tracing app “remains voluntary and decentralized,” said Granick. The Trump administration’s reported plan to create a COVID-19 data surveillance program with healthcare and tech companies lacks transparency, Democratic lawmakers wrote the White House Friday (see 2004100061).