As companies and governments around the world battle the coronavirus pandemic, Apple and Google are making changes to the contact tracing technology they've developed to help inform people when they may have been exposed to the virus.

1. Disney reshuffles Marvel movies Disney fireworks stream Coronavirus updates Zoom calls increase Hubble space telescope
Apple, Google rework
coronavirus tracking tech to
address privacy concerns
The tech giants added new security features for their
iPhone and Android phone technology.
Ian Sherr April 27, 2020 5:00 a.m. PT L I S T E N - 0 1 : 4 67
Background by Pixabay/Photo by Angela Lang/CNET
As companies and governments around the world battle the coronavirus
pandemic, Apple and Google are making changes to the contact tracing
technology they've developed to help inform people when they may
have been exposed to the virus.
The contact tracing technology, which the two companies have been
working on for a little over a month, was initially designed to help people
alert one another if someone they were in contact with over a 14-day
period was diagnosed with the coronavirus. When the project was first
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coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO website.
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2. announced, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google head Sundar Pichai
promised the technology would be built with privacy in mind.
The technology basically works by helping Apple iPhones or devices
powered by Google's Android software communicate with one another.
They do this by sending signals to one another over Bluetooth radio that
are stored on the phones. If someone is then confirmed as having the
coronavirus, their phones send out a new signal alerting all the phones
they'd come in contact with over the preceding 14 days.
Apple's and Google's efforts are just the latest ways big tech companies
have been working to help fight the coronavirus, which has killed nearly
200,000 people around the world, and infected more than 2.7 million
people.
C O R O N AV I R U S U P DAT E S
Verily, the life sciences arm of Google parent company Alphabet, last
month launched a website that gives people in California information
about virus testing. The website, developed in partnership with the
White House, lets people fill in symptoms and complete an online
screener.
Google also last month said it's committing more than $800 million to
help small businesses and crisis responders dealing with the
coronavirus pandemic. Apple and Google have both also begun making
and distributing protective equipment for health care workers.
Now with this new coronavirus tracing technology, two of Silicon Valley's
biggest rivals are hoping to help create apps that'll help us regain a
sense of normalcy as we wait for a vaccine or other ways to fight the
virus.
New privacy protections
Apple and Google said the technology will be opt-in, meaning it won't be
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. Then Apple and Google plan to offer software updates
to the more than 2 billion active devices around the world using their
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3. software by the end of the year.
Apple said that includes any phone that can power iOS 13, the
company's latest software, which runs on devices as far back as the
iPhone 6S, which was initially released in 2015.
The companies began discussing the project two weeks ago, sharing
initial planning documents publicly to offer security researchers, partners
and critics a way to begin vetting the technology.
To ensure further security, Apple and Google said they'd change the
contact tracing program to use better encryption, scrambling any
identifying information to ensure people cannot be tracked. The
companies are also protecting any potentially identifiable information
about a person's phone, such as which model of phone they're using or
the signal strength of their transmissions.
Apple and Google are looking to health officials to build apps, the
companies said, but they'll also provide assistance. The companies said
it'll be easy to build an app for this project. And for health officials who
don't want to build their own, they'll be able to use a premade app that
can be rebranded.
Call it 'exposure notification'
The companies are also changing the terminology they're using, moving
away from the widely used term "contact tracing," which could heighten
anxieties of people worried about their privacy. Instead, they're calling
this system "exposure notification," saying it better describes the
functionality of the program while the companies shift to emphasizing
that the program is "privacy-preserving."
Whether Apple's and Google's software will ultimately win over people is
still unclear. 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 opt
in, meaning the companies would need to convince potentially billions of
people to sign up.
As part of their efforts to entice people, Apple and Google have
promised to dismantle the system when the coronavirus crisis passes.
That will include shutting down the application programming interface,
or API, built to work with public health apps being built.
"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. "We just want to make
sure that this is something that's verifiable, and that there will be an
independent review to make sure the commitments they've made is
something they're living up to."
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4. First published on April 24, 2020 at 9:15 a.m. PT.
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