It will collect user postcodes in the UK. Do your research.
I’m ok with the functionality but you can’t be like the tin foil hat folk and deny the facts.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple and Google Reveal How COVID-19 Exposure Notification Apps Will Function
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It will collect user postcodes in the UK. Do your research.
I’m ok with the functionality but you can’t be like the tin foil hat folk and deny the facts.
This is neither robust nor reliable. It is NOT contact tracing. It is PROXIMITY tracing. And it is both too selective and not selective enough.
What are you supposed to do, quarantine yourself for 14 days every single time this thing goes off? Might as well just tell people to "stay inside" like they're already doing.
Hopefully it's not just keeping every single person you pass near for 5 seconds. One of the countries that did Bluetooth tracking like this had a minimum amount of time you had to be near that person I think. That might be up to the app using the API and not the API itself though.
That article is very well written - thanks for sharing! @WestonHarvey1, exactly. It’s a pointless exercise to bunker down every time you get a notification without knowing the context of the interaction or whether you were actually in “contact” with someone. Even then, there is no assurance you will be infected.
Google, Facebook already track you ....... if your phone is on you are being tracked ...No way I'm letting Apple track m—
…well, still.
[automerge]1588617010[/automerge]
Apple and Google today are providing public health authorities around the world with new resources to help them make COVID-19 exposure notification apps, including sample user interfaces and sample code for iOS and Android.
iOS 13.5 will include a new menu in Settings > Health > COVID-19 Exposure Logging that indicates which public health authority app a user is using, in addition to showing the number of times that a user's exposure log has been checked in the past 14 days.
If a user is potentially exposed to COVID-19, they would receive a push notification from the public health authority's app.
Here's what the app could display when a user goes to report a positive COVID-19 diagnosis:
Apple and Google today also shared a list of requirements that all developers of apps that use their Exposure Notifications API must adhere to:
Last week, Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 13.5 with the code needed to run apps built using the Exposure Notifications API, and it continues to target mid-May for a public release of the software update. Apple also released the first beta of Xcode 11.5 with a new version of the iOS SDK incorporating the API.
- Apps must be created by or for a government public health authority and they can only be used for COVID-19 response efforts.
- Apps must require users to consent before the app can use the API.
- Apps must require users to consent before sharing a positive test result with the public health authority.
- Apps should only collect the minimum amount of data necessary and can only use that data for COVID-19 response efforts. All other uses of user data, including targeting advertising, is not permitted.
- Apps are prohibited from seeking permission to access Location Services.
- Use of the API will be restricted to one app per country to promote high user adoption and avoid fragmentation. If a country has opted for a regional or state approach, Apple and Google are prepared to support those authorities.
Apple and Google said their API is just one component of the broader efforts that public health authorities are undertaking worldwide to help curb the pandemic, including testing, traditional contact tracing, and containment.
For more details on the API, read our previous coverage and Apple's FAQ.
Article Link: Apple and Google Reveal How COVID-19 Exposure Notification Apps Will Function
Here are eight privacy protections built into the API jointly created by Apple and Google. You can read that piece for the full details (along with an explanation about how contact tracing works), but here’s the bullet-point list:
- You choose whether or not to participate
- No personally identifiable data is used
- No location data is captured or stored
- No data goes to your government without your permission
- No one will know who infected them
- Only official government apps can access the data
- Apple and Google can disable the system at any time
- All of these claims are independently verifiable
It means go get tested ASAP , you may have the virus
Nah. Calculate your risk like a normal human. Simply being alive is inherently dangerous.
What if I’m driving or sitting next to someone at a stop light who has it? Will this tell me exactly where it happened so I can decide whether to self-quarantine?
The thing with this is for it to work people have to install a government app, right? Good luck with that. I originally thought their solution would be more automatic. Also good luck with getting people to do this AND indicate that they have the virus when they come down with it.
Unfortunately we’re going to need a lot more deaths until people are willing to adopt something like this, and/or the creation of a more intrusive system that violates privacy. I don’t see that happening at the moment.
The thing with this is for it to work people have to install a government app, right? Good luck with that. I originally thought their solution would be more automatic. Also good luck with getting people to do this AND indicate that they have the virus when they come down with it.
Unfortunately we’re going to need a lot more deaths until people are willing to adopt something like this, and/or the creation of a more intrusive system that violates privacy. I don’t see that happening at the moment.
It can't mean that. Our testing apparatus isn't set up that way. It takes a variable number of days to go from exposure to detectible levels of virus in your system. You would need to test every single day. In my area you can't get a test unless you satisfy various criteria - being already symptomatic is one of them.
"Someone just sneezed 20 ft away at 284 degrees from your current location."
Using ARKit and the upcoming Apple AR glasses, we could see the sneeze cloud and avoid it.
flu killed millions over years, Apple laughs at you and gives you step tracker. Covidl kills 100.000 gets own api in source Code to track all and everything! WOW
[automerge]1588619239[/automerge]
wow, even better Apple has now a kill switch over private property, that calms me, thanks!
I totally understand people being concerned about any sort of new tracking capabilities and wanting to better understand them, but the levels of willful ignorance about what the current pandemic is and why something like this might be necessary is truly depressing.
We really need a sticky post that simply repeats “Covid-19 is nothing like the flu” three times.
We really need a sticky post that simply repeats “Covid-19 is nothing like the flu” three times.
While participating in the app is described as voluntary on the iPhone, "voluntary" is open to interpretation. I can see an employer demanding use of this app as a Mandatory prerequisite for employment with daily audits.
That's a possible cool side effect of this Pandora's box tech.
Opt-in until...it's not.
Anyway, I think this will flop hard, and not for technical reasons.
Unless states suddenly because China and impose it, people are not to massively enable this.
Last edited:
For that specific case. You turn on Do Not Disturb While Driving.
Use the Driving Focus on your iPhone to concentrate on the road - Apple Support
With iOS 15 and later, the Driving Focus helps you stay focused on the road. When you turn it on, text messages and other notifications are silenced or limited.
How come almost no actual information about the "public health authority" apps... like exactly who do they come from. It's nice and all that there will be an API in the OS eventually, but I'm waiting for the shoes to drop now that we know they CAN be in 13.5.
You have to evaluate the amount of anonymity and privacy you have under two conditions:
1. You have installed the app
2. You have installed the app, tested positive for Covid-19 and approved sharing your status
Under condition 2 your anonymity and privacy will be less than under condition 1.
Although, in your example, you will not be notified since you spent only a second near each other.
I'm interested in how well this works.
Especially with all the people who are fine with your cell phone knowing everything about you besides, something significant.
Google sent me e-mails with a map locating everywhere I had traveled for that week. That's fine though.
Especially with all the people who are fine with your cell phone knowing everything about you besides, something significant.
Google sent me e-mails with a map locating everywhere I had traveled for that week. That's fine though.
You have to be in close contact for an extended period of time, usually 10-15 minutes.
The API supports a weighted formula which calculates your risk based on proximity, duration, the number of days since you met and som other factor.
The peasants can’t ask questions of the authorities! They know what’s best and will tell you how to use it! Blind trust is the key.
The UK app will not use this API. They will just create a normal app that can trace you far more than this API can do.
[automerge]1588622618[/automerge]
It will not notify you very often. How many people which you do not live with do you stay close to for an extended period of time, like 10-15 minutes?
The UK has chosen to not use the API provided by Apple and Google and rolled their own contact tracing tech. Perhaps you should do your research.
UK starts testing its own coronavirus contact tracing app
The UK government launched its first test of a coronavirus contact tracing app this week on a small island off the south coast of England.
The author of the article have not read the API documentation and really do not understand the finer details of it.
F.ex. the author believes that the app has access to the Bluetooth identifiers. The author believes that close contacts for a short period of time will be reported etc.
[automerge]1588623331[/automerge]
It is up to the health authorities to advice you.
It could be something like this:
* Quarantine voluntary for 14 days after you had the close encounter
* If you develop symptoms, contact your doctor
* If you develop no symptoms, you can go out again
[automerge]1588623466[/automerge]
Yes, but you will not be notified very often if you practise sosial distancing. Staying closer than 6 feet to person for 10-15 minutes is not something you do very often these days.
Last edited: