Report Details How Apple and Google Developed Contact Tracing API

[MacRumors]

Apple and Google developed their upcoming COVID-19 contact tracing tool in record time, according to a new report from CNBC that details how the two companies came together to create the API.

It took Apple under a month to flesh out the project, and in the beginning stages, it was the work of a handful of employees who had started brainstorming a solution to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 back in March.

The speed at which the tool was developed was "highly unusual" for Apple, according to CNBC, spearheaded by employees who wanted to create a decentralized contact tracing solution that used Bluetooth in the background, didn't draw much battery life, and was focused on privacy.

The initial team focused on an opt-in solution that would send anonymous alerts to other phones it had been nearby rather than uploading the information to a government or central authority to prevent databases with detailed location or proximity info from being built, which are all features of the finished product.

Time was of the essence given the quick spread of COVID-19, and it didn't take long for the project to pick up speed with engineers volunteering their time. Meanwhile, employees at Google were also working on something similar, and team members from both Apple and Google ultimately communicated with one another and found a solution for working together.

Within a few weeks, the Apple project - code-named "Bubble" - had dozens of employees working on it with executive-level support from two sponsors: Craig Federighi, a senior vice president of software engineering, and Jeff Williams, the company's chief operating officer and de-facto head of healthcare. By the end of the month, Google had officially come on board, and about a week later, the companies' two CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai met virtually to give their final vote of approval to the project.

Apple is said to be aiming to launch its contact tracing tool, now called exposure notification, on May 1 in a software update. Apps that use Apple's exposure notification API will run on the iPhone 6s and later and will be able to communicate not only with iPhones, but also with Android devices, with the goal of informing users if they've been exposed to COVID-19.

CNBC's full report, which goes much more into depth on the development of the partnership and the work on the tracing technology, can be found on CNBC's website.

Article Link: Report Details How Apple and Google Developed Contact Tracing API

 

[Pistol Peto]

The faster this gets into people's phones (+ higher testing availability) the faster this will be over. If goverments allow this (UK just said no) it will be one of the best applications of smart phones ever.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Still a hard pass. I don't care if it was only Apple working on this.

 

[Trik]

Anonymized data with user consent is the right way to do this. If you have Tik Tok installed on your phone, but you think this is "too much" you really need to re-evaluate where your trust lies.

 

[jonplackett]

This seems as good of a solution as there can be - unfortunately, yet again our dumb ass UK government think they know best (like they did when they didn't lock down and let probably about 10,000 people more die than would have otherwise) have decided to bake their own app with a central server and basically give themselves permission to monitor everyone's location 24/7. People above saying this Apple/Google way is a hard pass should bear in mind the alternatives.

 

[0ID]

and the data is aggregated and Google sells it to whoever. What will do Apple with the data? Pass to?

 

[jent]

Very interesting technology, and I hope it can be put to use soon for common good.

The graphic is a bit confusing since I think most people will read the top-right panel after the top-left panel, when clearly the bottom-left panel is meant to be read second.

 

[stars_fan]

Opt in supposedly and present on all iPhones that upgrade. Hard pass

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

I don't understand why this is just an API... shouldn't Apple be providing an actual app? How does this help anyone? We're relying on governments to competently and quickly develop apps themselves?

 

[itsmilo]

And how is the information about a positive infection gonna end up from the doctor to the app?

 

[Rubik]

and the data is aggregated and Google sells it to whoever. What will do Apple with the data? Pass to?

The data will never touch Apple‘s or Google‘s servers. It stays on your device. So there is nothing to sell. Only if you were infected and consented, your random beacon codes that were broadcasted via Bluetooth will be uploaded to a centralized place (which probably still won‘t be a Google or Apple server).

 

[tom.humphrey]

As a UK resident I would use this. However, screw the half baked government solution. Look at all their other apps they are poorly rated and not used.

overall, though I don’t get the point of this. I’ve either got it or not. Getting a notification saying I may have been in contact with someone that tests positives surely just spreads fear?

 

[mactactic]

Anyone still think Local State Govt won’t require you have this app on your phone before you go out ?

 

[TechieGeek]

I don't understand why this is just an API... shouldn't Apple be providing an actual app? How does this help anyone? We're relying on governments to competently and quickly develop apps themselves?

Only people who have tested positive, as verified by a local health agency, are able to voluntarily submit the random keys that your phone has been broadcasting into the database of keys of "people who tested positive".

The API allows local health agencies' apps to verify that you did indeed test positive before you submit your keys.

 

[AngerDanger]

I just realized how great this illustration is:

Flop sweat drips from Bob's uneven hairline as he sits bored, balancing a notchless smartphone in his hand with the screen faced away and the classic "App" app open. Not even his pencil 'stache distracts from the oddity.

 

[tom.humphrey]

I don't understand why this is just an API... shouldn't Apple be providing an actual app? How does this help anyone? We're relying on governments to competently and quickly develop apps themselves?

My understanding of it is they’re building an api which they’re initially rolling out as an app before implementing it in a lower level at some point in the future.

 

[B4U]

Nope. Not gonna happen.
I will turn off every single freaking thing to disable this crap on the phones.

Before anyone trying to criticize me, I have been staying at home pretty much the whole damn time without contacting anyone outside and had been way out of the 2m distance from any other human beings outside.

 

[Stromos]

Anonymized data with user consent is the right way to do this. If you have Tik Tok installed on your phone, but you think this is "too much" you really need to re-evaluate where your trust lies.

Anonymized is being used so heavily in every article.

I'll try again, anonymized would assume you can't discover the origin device. You literally have to for this to work. That means somewhere device id = anonymized id. You can change the anonymous id every five minutes but it still has to be in a table somewhere that said id at this time belongs to device id. That's the only way you are notified.

In advertising that's anonymized and what everyone keeps touting you don't need to store device id = advertising id anywhere. The data never has to make it back to the origin device because you just want the data.

Do you see the difference? Somewhere there is a record that has to keep track of the device. You are trusting this joint rushed operation has safeguards in place that someone won't be able to access that data. In the advertising world that data literally isn't there so its safe.

 

[Westside guy]

Alice? You were meeting with BOB?! You told me you just went to the grocery store, you jerk!

 

[Puppuccino]

It’s my understanding that this is just an API though, right?

So when this is released we still need to wait for someone to make an app that uses it.

 

[iGeneo]

and the data is aggregated and Google sells it to whoever. What will do Apple with the data? Pass to?

Where does it say that Apple or Google get your data?

 

[Westside guy]

So when this is released we still need to wait for someone to make an app that uses it.

In the US it's most likely a state agency will do this, although it'd make more sense to do it nationally.

 

[nfl46]

Interesting. I was on board until Google joined in. No, thanks.

 

[shiseiryu1]

I don’t know why Apple didn’t just build this into their health app with a opt-put. This virus is serious business and we’re going to rely on people downloading specific apps to know whether we were exposed or not?! Really this is the best idea the richest companies in the world could come up with?!

 

[okjedi]

Or it was actually already developed and they just had a few tweaks to make. Thanks but no. And no on any certificate of vaccination, microdot or microship. Nope.