During the coronavirus crisis, there have been many debates regarding the use of contact tracing apps. Apple and Google are now taking measures to protect user information for any of these apps being built on their technology.
Apple and Google have been actively developing infrastructure to support contact tracing apps.
Apple and Google do the Right Thing
These tools are designed to aid during the tracking of coronavirus cases.
Their unified system will notify people if they have been near others who tested positive for COVID-19.
Public health authorities will be given access to this technology further down the line.
Privacy advocates were quick to point out how this would erode user privacy in quick succession.
Others fear that governments will abuse these systems to compile data on all citizens in a country.
One key aspect of this would be the collection of GPS location data.
Apple and Google will now ensure that no GPS data can be collected through their contact tracing system.
How much of an impact this will make, is a different matter altogether.
Some companies are already exploring workarounds which seem to offer very similar functionality and track GPS data.
Moreover, this may lead to authorities not adopting the app built by Google and Apple either.