Apple and Google announced a significant new step in their collaboration to help public health authorities track and trace COVID-19 exposures using smartphones. The companies say they’re ready to send out an application programming interface (API) that could let health agencies enlist the help of millions of smartphones in tracking the spread of COVID-19 from person to person.
The API will let health agency apps use the Bluetooth in iOS and Android phones to detect and remember other smartphones that they’ve come near, in case the owner of one of the devices later proves to have COVID-19. Then the health agency would be able to notify the device’s owner that they’ve potentially been exposed. Apple and Google said that “a number of” U.S. states have asked for access to their API, but declined to give an exact number.
The two companies held a press call Wednesday to announce the API release, and to address some of the privacy concerns about their contact tracing framework….
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Source : fastcompany.com
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