Google, Apple will enable mobile phones to trace user contacts in coronavirus fight

The coronavirus crisis is uniting Apple and Google in a project to enable mobile phones to trace people’s movements and their proximity to others who may have contracted or been exposed to the novel virus that’s frozen the global economy.

The fierce competitors in the mobility market said last week they are working together to fast-track a contact-tracing solution that gives public health officials another tool in fighting the global outbreak—one that raises stark concerns about privacy that may extend beyond the best intentions of those companies.

Widely deploying a technology rife with very real privacy threats might be the cost society has to endure to enable a process that would almost certainly go far in allowing a return to some semblance of normality.

China, where the government can more-easily mandate its citizens to surrender their privacy, has already deployed similar technology in hard-hit regions. People who want to access public areas in Wuhan, the epicentre of the pandemic, must flash a “green pass” on their smartphone.

Apple and Google said the effort, made in the same “spirit of collaboration” that’s motivating software developers all over the world to build tools to combat the pandemic, will use Bluetooth networking to track when people are close to one another.

In May, the companies will release APIs that empower developers from public health agencies to build contact-tracing applications that are interoperable across their rival mobile operating systems and can be downloaded from their respective app stores.

And “in the coming months” the Bluetooth-based functionality will be built directly into the iOS and Android platforms, allowing even more participants and better integration with a broader ecosystem of apps and public health agencies, Apple and Google said.

The companies pledged that privacy controls will be at the forefront of their joint work.