In recent weeks, a series of messages of this kind have been disseminated through WhatsApp and other networks: ” Android, Google’s operating system for mobiles, is secretly installing a COVID-19 application on mobiles .” However, it is not secret, nor is it an app, as verification services such as Newtral have already denied and Apple and Google have explained in a joint statement.
As we already know, one of the biggest challenges in order to keep the spread of COVID-19 under control in the coming months will be the ability to detect cases in time, isolate them, and test all contacts to avoid outbreaks. For this, technology and artificial intelligence solutions will be great allies, and around the world they are already working on tools that allow contact tracing. Specifically, the Government of Spain has announced that it will begin in the Canary Islands with a pilot project of an application designed for this purpose, and similar tools are already being implemented in other countries.
It is not an app, it is an API
In order for these contact tracing applications to work, and always with user authorization , Google and Apple have incorporated an application programming interface (API) into their mobile devices. For this reason, many people are already seeing this option on their mobile phones: in the case of Android, you can check it by entering Settings – Google and looking for the option “notification of exposures to COVID-19” . This is an innocuous option and it is inactive because, as we have already mentioned, right now there is no official app to take advantage of it.
The API will facilitate the interoperability of operating systems through Bluetooth and will allow the user to enable an option to receive a notification via mobile in case of having been in contact with a person affected by COVID-19. It is a voluntary option, you will have to activate it yourself, just like you activate notifications in other apps, and you can deactivate it whenever you want. In addition, as we have already said, until there is no official application for contact tracing that you can install on your mobile, this option will not work.
In the Android help you can find all the information to better understand the operation of the exposure notifications to COVID-19: “When you activate the exposure notifications in the application of the health authority of your region, your phone shares random IDs with other phones nearby that have also activated the exposure notification system. Throughout the day, your phone and the phones that pass near you exchange these random IDs. When your phone detects the random ID of another device, it records and stores it. In this way, if someone indicates that they have COVID-19 and their ID is on your phone, the application will inform you of what steps you should follow next ”.
“As of today, our exposure notification technology is available to public health agencies on both iOS and Android,” Apple and Google explained in a May 20 statement. “What we have created is not an app, but the public health agencies will incorporate the API into their own applications that people will install later. Our technology is designed to make these applications work better. Each user can decide whether or not to accept the exposure notifications; the system does not collect or use the location of the device; And if a person is diagnosed with COVID-19, it is up to them to report or not in the public health app. User adoption is key to success and we believe that these strong privacy protections are also the best way to encourage the use of these applications. ”
