there has never been a more important
moment to work together to solve one of
the world’s most pressing problems. Through
close cooperation and collaboration with
developers, governments, and public health
providers, we hope to harness the power of
technology to help countries around the world
slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate
the return of everyday life,” later emphasizing
the importance of privacy and widespread
public adoption.
The first version of the new cross-platform API
was made available to developers on April
28, and software developers can now begin
building their own apps that employ the
technology on behalf of public health agencies.
In the United States, the API will be used by The
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
as well as on a state-by-state level, whilst in
the United Kingdom, the NHS is reportedly in a
“standoff ” with developers as the APIs create
centralized databases of contacts, rather than
collect data on individual users.
THE ARGUMENT FOR PRIVACY
And it’s those databases that will be a sticking
point for consumers. One of the biggest issues
Google and Apple will face in the coming
months is trust, and persuading users to agree
to be tracked by Silicone Valley tech giants and
indeed their own governments. Technology like
Apple’s Find My and Google’s Find My Device
already tracks our locations and devices and
are universally accepted by iOS and Android
users, but the truth is that the COVID-19 tracker
is the biggest large-scale data harvesting
project the world has ever seen.