Apple-Google App Rejected by NHS

The tech giants say their app provides more privacy as it limits the ability to hack the computer server logs.

21:31 29 April 2020

The NHS has rejected Apple and Google proposed plans for a coronavirus contact tracing mobile app. 

 

The two tech giants proposed an app that will allow users who are in close contact with each other to exchange key codes in their phones. Users who eventually gets infected with the virus can update their status in the app and give their consent to share their key with the database. This will alert anybody they were in close contact so they can either self-isolate or get tested. 

 

The tech giants say that their plans provide more privacy because it limits the ability of either the authorities or hackers to use the computer server logs to track specific individuals and identify their social interactions. 

 

However, the NHSX believes that a centralised system will give it more insight into Covid-19's spread, and therefore how to evolve the app accordingly. 

 

Prof Christophe Fraser, one of the epidemiologists advising NHSX, said: "One of the advantages is that it's easier to audit the system and adapt it more quickly as scientific evidence accumulates.

 

"The principal aim is to give notifications to people who are most at risk of having got infected, and not to people who are much lower risk.

 

"It's probably easier to do that with a centralised system."