Most US states do not plan to use Apple and Google's COVID19 contact-tracing API

https://9to5mac.com/2020/06/05/covid-19-exposure-notification-api-states/

by unholiness • 6 years ago

2 1 6 years ago

unholiness• 6 years ago

I genuinely don't understand why this is.

There's a protocol running on almost every smartphone in the world right now, locally recording the necessary anonymized proximity data with BTLE[0]. All states need to to is produce an authoritative way to declare you have COVID, and release an app that provides notifications if a new case is broadcast that matches your history.

The fact that this protocol allows reporting your recent data even if you've installed nothing before realizing you have COVID is critical for success. The fact that the data doesn't include GPS or any long-time persistent key is critical for privacy (and, thus, adoption).

The upside is potentially significantly lowering the reproduction rate of COVID while businesses reopen. The downside is... what exactly? Why has almost every state (not to mention the federal government) not committed to implementing these apps?

[0] https://covid19-static.cdn-apple.com/applications/covid19/cu...

Most US states do not plan to use Apple and Google's COVID19 contact-tracing API

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