The two tech giant’s efforts are just the latest ways big companies and business have been working to help
fight the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 202,000 people around the world,
and infected more than 2.9 million people. Its impact on these businesses has
been devastating as it but the important thing is their priorities lie in the
right direction.
The contact tracking technology was initially designed to help people alert one
another on the off chance of someone they might have come in contact with over
a 14-day period and eventually diagnosed with the coronavirus. Apple CEO- Tim
Cook and Google head- Sundar Pichai, ensured the technology would be built with
privacy in mind.
Google also claimed it’s committing $800+ million to help small businesses and
crisis responders dealing with the pandemic. Meanwhile, Apple and Google have
both also begun producing and issuing protective equipment for health care
workers.
Now with this new coronavirus tracking technology, Silicon Valley’s finest are
hoping to help create apps that’ll help us regain a sense of routine as we
await a vaccine.
Privacy Protection Update
Apple and Google have clearly kept their word since the said technology is
opt-in and not turned on by default. The companies will offer programming tools
to developers in mid-May, allowing health authorities to build apps with this
new technology.
Apple and Google have planned to offer software updates to the more than two
billion active devices around the world using their software by the end of the
year. It will include any phone that can power iOS 13, the Apple’s latest
software, which runs on devices as old as the iPhone 6S.
The companies began debating the project two weeks ago; they shared initial
planning documents overtly to offer security researchers, partners and critics
a means to begin vetting the technology.
To ensure further security, Apple and Google said they’d change the contact
tracking program to use better encryption, scrambling any information that can
be misused to ensure people cannot be tracked. The companies are also
protecting any potentially discernable information about a person’s phone, such
as the model of their phone or the signal strength of their transmissions.
Apple and Google are looking to health officials and organizations to build
apps and they’ll gladly provide assistance. The companies said it’ll be easy to
build an app for this project. Although health officials who don’t want to
build their own, they’ll be able to use a premade app that can be rebranded.
Exposure Notification
The companies are also renaming the terminology they’re using, instead of the
widely used term “contact tracking,” which could amplify anxieties of people
worried about their privacy; they’re calling this technology ‘exposure
notification’, since it better describes the functionality of the program while
the companies also emphasize that the program is ‘privacy-preserving’.
It will remain a mystery whether Apple and Google win over people with this
program until it actually bears results. The companies admitted they don’t know
the minimum number of people opting in that’s necessary for the system to be
effective. Experts believe at least half the population would have to allow the
program access, meaning the companies would need to convince potentially
billions of people to update.
Apple and Google have promised to dismantle the system when the coronavirus
crisis passes as a means to entice people. That will include shutting down the
application-programming interface (API) built to work with public health apps
in process.
“The promise that Apple and Google will shut the API off is very welcome,”
Jennifer Stisa Granick, the ACLU’s surveillance and cybersecurity counsel, said
earlier this month. She also assured the people that proper vetting would be
carried out with independent reviews so that they can verify the commitments
made by the Silicon Valley’s finest.
Check out how covid-19 has been affecting businesses worldwide at PACE.
