Scotland Launches Contact Tracing App With Apple and Google API

[MacRumors]

Scotland is the latest country to implement Apple's and Google's Exposure Notification API in their COVID-19 contact tracing app, now available on the App Store.

The Protect Scotland app was developed by NHS Scotland and is based on the exposure notification technology that was jointly developed by Google and Apple. Some other countries that have implemented or are committed to implementing the API include Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia.

Built into iOS 13.5 on the Apple side, the API allows iPhones and Android smartphones to interface with one another for contact tracing purposes. If and when you happen to be nearby someone who later tests positive for COVID-19, you can receive a notification and take the appropriate steps to self isolate and seek medical help if necessary.

Apple recently rolled out a new Exposure Notifications System that does not require an app to be downloaded for the feature to be turned on. After updating to iOS 13.7, a new ‌Exposure Notification‌ section appears in the Settings app where there's a toggle to "Turn on Exposure Notifications."

Activating Exposure Notifications lets you know if the feature is available in your country, state, or region through a contact tracing app. In areas that are participating in the Exposure Notifications Express program, users can turn on Exposure Notifications without the need to download an app.

Apple and Google have stressed the privacy of their Bluetooth-based solution, which must be enabled in the Settings app under Privacy > Health > COVID-19 Exposure Logging to function. Read our Exposure Notification guide for more details.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Scotland Launches Contact Tracing App With Apple and Google API

 

[ruka.snow]

Downloaded and installed. Will be handy as I'll be visiting Dundee next week. Though not so handy in the village, but everyone is staying two meters apart except for tourists that are selfish enough to be on holiday during a global pandemic so surely they'll be selfish enough to not install a COVID tracking app on their phones.

 

[KrisLord]

So much for England’s world beating track and trace system.

I wonder what happens if this app is installed on lots of phones south of the border?

 

[ruka.snow]

So much for England’s world beating track and trace system.

I wonder what happens if this app is installed on lots of phones south of the border?

It won't work fully in England as NHS England won't be providing you compatible codes.

Edit: What will work if you are in Scotland and you get a code then pass by iPhones and Android phones in England if you work on the borders. So those devices will get exposure notifications even if they don't have a app installed, assuming they opted in.

 

[calstanford]

I think every city should have their own app that doesn't talk to any other app. Then the tracing would be even more useless.

 

[ruka.snow]

I think every city should have their own app that doesn't talk to any other app. Then the tracing would be even more useless.

Nothing useless about this. If I catch COVID again I'll be able to report to all the phones in contact then manually inform my older neighbours that don't have a smartphone(mostly because you need internet access for a mobile phone here).

 

[bsolar]

everyone is staying two meters apart except for tourists that are selfish enough to be on holiday during a global pandemic so surely they'll be selfish enough to not install a COVID tracking app on their phones.

Selfish they might be, but let's not forget that there are places that rely on tourism as one of their main industries. The problem is when people ignore the rules, be them tourists or not.

 

[polyphenol]

Come on Wales. Put the boot into England even further and announce we too have such an app.

 

[ruka.snow]

Selfish they might be, but let's not forget that there are places that rely on tourism as one of their main industries. The problem is when people ignore the rules, be them tourists or not.

Our village does depend heavily on tourism but after a week we started closing shops tourists visit and closing our B&B's. People on holiday mode seem to be incapable to catching on that the virus isn't on hold because they are on holiday and frankly I can't imagine how it would cross anyones mind to go on holiday just now, especially not one that involves going to another county.

As an aside, at least this is post lockdown. We had people here complaining everything was shut at Easter.

 

[deckard666]

Downloaded and installed. Will be handy as I'll be visiting Dundee next week. Though not so handy in the village, but everyone is staying two meters apart except for tourists that are selfish enough to be on holiday during a global pandemic so surely they'll be selfish enough to not install a COVID tracking app on their phones.

I live in Cornwall - we welcome those selfish tourists and their money and a lot had holidays already booked before the pandemic. I have generally found them more responsible than a lot of the locals who are a lot older and should have a lot more to worry about.

 

[ruka.snow]

I live in Cornwall - we welcome those selfish tourists and their money and a lot had holidays already booked before the pandemic. I have generally found them more responsible than a lot of the locals who are a lot older and should have a lot more to worry about.

Different locations, different experiences. Usually our tourists are quite respectful and just come to paint the scenery. The ones tying to come off late have been mass gathering, complaining the pubs are closed, and complaining they aren't allowed in the shops(They don't have an assigned time). I can not fathom the thoughts going through someones head that people are dying but I need my holiday and it can't wait a year.

 

[deckard666]

Big lack of imagination then on your part. People die all the time (and mostly not of Covid) but people still need a holiday. Most people work to have some small level of luxury and a holiday is a big part of that especially in these times if you dont live anywhere pretty or near a beach or you've worked your ass off in the health service lately. If the government aren't banning holidays then they need to enforce the restrictions. I find a lot of this so called "local elitism" just so non-empathic especially coming from

 

[indiekiduk]

After updating to iOS 13.7, a new ‌Exposure Notification‌ section appears in the Settings app where there's a toggle to "Turn on Exposure Notifications."

Attempting to turn it on just redirects you to the app store to show the app for the region you choose, although it seems to just show Ireland's app no matter what region you choose. Scotland isn't a region option and if you choose UK then it says there is no app available yet. So currently for Scotland you have to install the app to enable notifications.

 

[lordDavidson]

That only offers the UK as an option, not Scotland, which for me (on iOS 14b8) errors stating notifications are not yet available in this region. So I believe in Scotland we do have to install the app to turn on notifications or perhaps someone on 13.7 could test it?

I'm on 13.7 and you do need to have the app installed. When it's installed, you can see it in the settings page.

 

[twistedpixel8]

So is this completely incompatible with the English app then? A Scot can walk past an English person and the two apps have no clue? I’m not following 100%, I thought they all used the same underlying API to ensure that it worked regardless of which app you used.

 

[lordDavidson]

So is this completely incompatible with the English app then? A Scot can walk past an English person and the two apps have no clue? I’m not following 100%, I thought they all used the same underlying API to ensure that it worked regardless of which app you used.

Well England doesn't have one yet, so I'm not sure. I think the theory is that if using the Google/Apple APIs then it is possible for them to talk to each other.

Alternatively, I guess you may need to install both apps? The Scotland one asks if you are living or visiting Scotland.

 

[GadgetBen]

I really like those neutral phone mockup designs, would be good for my app screenshots.

Anyone know where to get them?

 

[twistedpixel8]

Well England doesn't have one yet, so I'm not sure. I think the theory is that if using the Google/Apple APIs then it is possible for them to talk to each other.

Alternatively, I guess you may need to install both apps? The Scotland one asks if you are living or visiting Scotland.

Ah I thought England had released theirs, it just didn't work properly or something. Yes, that's my understanding of the API as well but I hope it's actually the case or it's pointless. There are so many English up here right now and I guarantee most of them won't install the app.

 

[kingjames1970]

This is the kind of app that is designed with privacy in mind and I would put on my phone but there was zero chance I was going to download the botched Boris/Cummings app. Just another example of Scotland being able to run its own affairs better without being shackled to Westminster.

 

[Vado]

So is this completely incompatible with the English app then? A Scot can walk past an English person and the two apps have no clue? I’m not following 100%, I thought they all used the same underlying API to ensure that it worked regardless of which app you used.

I lifted this from the FAQ

“Will this app work outside Scotland?

Not to begin with, no. We anticipate Protect Scotland working with the equivalent apps in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland & Gibraltar by the end of September once the necessary legal agreements are in place. We continue to liaise with the UK and Welsh Governments to ensure appropriate arrangements are considered for when their app becomes available in England and Wales.

As the Protect Scotland app is based on an emerging European standard for interoperability between Google / Apple based systems it is likely to be possible to integrate with any other app that embraces the same integration approach.“

Eventually when the England and Wales app is launched they should be compatible as they're built on the same framework.

 

[bigchrisfgb]

Well England doesn't have one yet, so I'm not sure. I think the theory is that if using the Google/Apple APIs then it is possible for them to talk to each other.

Alternatively, I guess you may need to install both apps? The Scotland one asks if you are living or visiting Scotland.

Yeah, the 2nd app that is being built is using the Apple/Google API and will be able to cross reference to see if they have come in contact with someone with another Apple/Google API track and trace app.

The original app was supposed to be for the whole of the U.K. but never worked well enough, UK government funded and built computer system, so no surprises there. Anyway Scotland being Scotland decided to also build their own app at the same time. It just happened to be that the UK’s generic app was a failure and Scotland still have a working app to fall back on.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

Downloaded and installed. Will be handy as I'll be visiting Dundee next week. Though not so handy in the village, but everyone is staying two meters apart except for tourists that are selfish enough to be on holiday during a global pandemic so surely they'll be selfish enough to not install a COVID tracking app on their phones.

For a lot of people it’s not a case of being selfish but rather having the finances to take 1 or 2 weeks off work on t he chance you *might* have the virus.

If the government forced all employers to pay employees full pay for 2 weeks with a valid COVID-19 doctors note then more people would do it.

 

[JulianL]

Hopefully the England app is fairly close to release. Testing started on or shortly after 13th August on the Isle of Wight (again), in Newham to give a more densely populated area, and amongst various NHS volunteers - https://www.newham.gov.uk/news/arti...lled-out-to-newham-residents-to-beat-covid-19

It looks as if the England app goes slightly beyond the basic contact tracing that the Apple/Google APIs provide. You can also scan QR codes at places you visit (pubs, restaurants, cinemas etc) and be alerted if anywhere you have visited has had a Covid-19 infected person there. I've started noticing QR codes in quite a few places that I've been recently. Hopefully that venue checking is also being implemented in the same distributed privacy-protected way that the basic exposure notifications are handled, i.e. the list of venues you check in at are only ever stored on your phone and matching is done by periodically downloading a list of infected venues from a central server. If that's how it works then I think it's quite a useful additional feature.

The UK government wasted a lot of time in England going down the wrong path with the first Isle of Wight trial of the initial app not based on the Apple/Google APIs but what's in testing now seems to me to be the right way to go, finally. I just hope the testing goes smoothly and it will be released to the whole population soon and that Scotland, England and Wales do cooperate to share infected keys with each other. In fact I hope that key sharing extends to all the other European countries adopting the Apple/Google API. Even worldwide sharing wouldn't be too difficult if some company or organisation stepped up to hosting a global database of infected keys.

 

[BenAigen]

Just downloaded and installed - hope this is an app I will not be required to use in the near future

 

[cocky jeremy]

Yup. Gotta stay on top of that suuuuuper deadly cold.