| Cult of Mac

UK rejects Apple/Google COVID-19 contact-tracing system

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The UK's National Health Service won’t use Apple/Google tech to warn users if they've recently been in contact with someone infected with coronavirus.
Photo: NHS

The U.K. reportedly decided to go with a coronavirus contact-tracing application different from the system Apple and Google are creating jointly. The National Health Service built an app that creates a central database of people who have tested positive for COVID-19. The Apple and Google solution uses a decentralized system for privacy reasons.

Apple and Google in standoff with NHS over contact tracing

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NHS wants Google and Apple to give it more access for contact tracing.
Photo: MIT

Apple and Google are reportedly in a “standoff” with the UK’s National Health Service over the development of the companies’ joint program to build contact tracing APIs.

According to a report from The Guardian, the two companies are taking a strong stand against the NHS’s insistence to break current Bluetooth privacy protocols. The NHS is hoping Apple and Google will lift their limits on how Bluetooth can be used, but Google says those limits are in place so that they can’t be abused for surveillance efforts.