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England and Wales' Contact-Tracing App With Apple and Google API to Launch September 24
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I'm not sure that is fair, wasn't the accusation at the time that it was because Johnson and his boss Dom wanted a "centralised" system because they claimed it would allow them to identify outbreaks better, despite their questionable history with misusing data and many people in the security and development communities telling them that it would be a privacy and security nightmare & they wouldn't be able to get it working reliability without Apple & Google's APIs which they wouldn't allow them access to if they collected all the data they wanted.
Let's be honest, if this lot could have gotten away with blaming other people they would have said that they had been badly advised, instead they did actually admit that they couldn't get it working reliably although of course refused to acknowledge that they had been told that from the start.
It took a long time because Dominic Cummings, who is a career charlatan, convinced the British government that he is a tech genius who would come up with a better system despite the fact he barely knows the Hello World program in BASIC.
So weeks were wasted on various systems that failed, used to much battery, had massive downsides and wouldn’t have been attractive to the public.
Finally the loons gave up and recanted.
it could have been worse. With a loony Corbyn government instead of any apps, social distancing or masks, Brits would have had Corbyn standing on a soap box waving his fist for the last 9 months while shouting socialist slogans like ‘Corona for the many not for the few!!’
So weeks were wasted on various systems that failed, used to much battery, had massive downsides and wouldn’t have been attractive to the public.
Finally the loons gave up and recanted.
it could have been worse. With a loony Corbyn government instead of any apps, social distancing or masks, Brits would have had Corbyn standing on a soap box waving his fist for the last 9 months while shouting socialist slogans like ‘Corona for the many not for the few!!’
Ireland Launches COVID-19 App That Uses Apple/Google Exposure Notification API
Ireland today released "COVID Tracker Ireland," a COVID-19 contact tracing app that takes advantage of Apple and Google's Exposure...
www.macrumors.com
Scotland Launches Contact Tracing App With Apple and Google API
Scotland is the latest country to implement Apple's and Google's Exposure Notification API in their COVID-19 contact tracing app, now...
www.macrumors.com
But you linked to the story on the Republic of Ireland's app, not Northern Ireland's . You don't work for BBC Breakfast by any chance?Ireland Launches COVID-19 App That Uses Apple/Google Exposure Notification API
Ireland today released "COVID Tracker Ireland," a COVID-19 contact tracing app that takes advantage of Apple and Google's Exposure...Scotland Launches Contact Tracing App With Apple and Google API
Scotland is the latest country to implement Apple's and Google's Exposure Notification API in their COVID-19 contact tracing app, now...
Just linked to various related articles about to the exposure notification API releases on MacRumors.
Why there isn't a single worldwide app is beyond me. I'm quite surprised that no open source developer has stepped forward to produce an app using this API and made it available across all the App Store territories. Unless I've missed it; the API is open to any developer, not just governments?
I genuinely considered doing this but not being a developer as my profession I'm slow to write code, generally doing it for the educational element. If a useful app appears at the end, well that's a bonus. Took a look at the original app's code on GitHub months ago, shrugged and left them to it.
If I'd known it would take this long I should have cobbled some nonsense together! 🤣
From the UK here. Finally at last, this should have been up and running before now, but thankfully it's here now.
I for one will be using it. I'm not one of those paranoid freaks who looks at this tracing as another way of Big Brother/Government to spy on us. Like security cameras, if you are not doing anything wrong, why be so paranoid about your privacy, and don't give me the "I have a right to privacy ********". If you are that paranoid or think you have a right to your privacy, then don't leave your home
Your paranoid "spying on us" should be a second thought with this tracing app, and you main thought should be opting in to use it, to make it easier to get people tested who have been in close contact to someone with Covid 19 . We should all be reading off the same f*****g page and trying to get on top of this as soon as we can, that should be our foremost concern.
I for one will be using it. I'm not one of those paranoid freaks who looks at this tracing as another way of Big Brother/Government to spy on us. Like security cameras, if you are not doing anything wrong, why be so paranoid about your privacy, and don't give me the "I have a right to privacy ********". If you are that paranoid or think you have a right to your privacy, then don't leave your home
Your paranoid "spying on us" should be a second thought with this tracing app, and you main thought should be opting in to use it, to make it easier to get people tested who have been in close contact to someone with Covid 19 . We should all be reading off the same f*****g page and trying to get on top of this as soon as we can, that should be our foremost concern.
Came here to say this. That said, it’s even worse in the US (where I have a lot of family and friends). 50 different states somehow expected to build 50 different apps for a country with free movement AKA one person could visit 10+ states in just a few days thus defeating the fragmented approach. Really hope the US and UK wake up.
Visit your local hospital and you'll find out how many people really do care about covid. Better still, if you think it isn't real, volunteer to help out at your local hospital because - with around 800 people per day every day dying from it in the US alone - they still need all the help that they can get.
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The problem isn't the technology, it's the politics.
The health authorities wanted a central database of results so that they could track and trace infected people or their contacts. The phone makers basically said "Not on our phones. You have to use our APIs if you want any help from us.". Their APIs more or less emasculated the whole process by removing any centralised data (i.e. no track and trace) and only informing people themselves if they've been near a C19 positive person but not saying who that person might be.
I have visited my local hospital, there are less than 10 people there for covid and none are in ICU. It doesn’t surprise me that cult of Mac people are still getting their news and information from click bait headlines and their mother in law Karen.
What's not surprising it seems, unfortunately, that isolated anecdotal experiences are somehow being treated as generalized universal facts while the actual reality is being overlooked (on purpose or not).
Just like moving the goal posts is a universal constant too. “Go check your local hospital for proof you monster”. “ I have, it’s not bad at all”. “You can’t use local facts as evidence you monster”.
Now if I go find cdc facts for you you’ll say the cdc has been compromised and only international facts are facts. Then I’ll find you some international facts and you’ll start in with the whatabouts. This thing is already almost over and when you finally realize it in 4 or 5 months you’ll think it was because of your dutiful service to the cause. Good job citizen. and at the same time you’ll be fighting inner monologue over whether or not you should take the vaccine. I mean the virus is deadly right? But the president is recommending it, and so it must be bad. Quite the conundrum.
Reality is reality, no matter how its spun. Certainly not everyone might actually realize it and/or care, but that doesn't change it.
Yes they wanted the data. But if I remember correctly their version was using Bluetooth and there is a set distance that BT can pick up nearby device. They wanted that to be closer than the 5m radius that Apple / google have. So the U.K. guys thought they could do it. I have no idea how , maybe some algorithm that filtered out devices it thought was beyond 2m etc. But anyway, it didn’t work. Hence falling back on Apple / Google’s built in tech anyway.
That’s what I heard anyway.
I think there were two issues. The first was keeping the data. Apple wouldn’t let them. Which is why they started to design their own system.
I think that part of the “superior” system was that they could make it only notify people within 1 or 2 meters instead of the 5 that Apple / google would bank on.
I think it’s there where the devs thought they could do better but gave up eventually.
So if they would have not thought they could have made a better system than Apple / google they would have just given up on the centralised data thing (that’s what Germany did early) and we would have had the software months ago.
British exceptionalism strikes again!