Google and Apple have announced the launch of the first public API (Exposure Notification API), which allows you to create applications to track contacts with people infected with coronavirus infection COVID-19. According to TechCrunch, earlier partners could offer only a beta version of the API to assist in the development.
with the new system, which can then be embedded in iOS and Android at the system level, users will be able to learn about potential contact with an infected person. Importantly, themselves Google and Apple are no programs do not create but only provide the technical means for developers that they can integrate in the official application of medical organizations.
Participation in this initiative is strictly voluntary: if people learned that you were infected, you’ll be able to report it. In this case, the notification will get all users who have installed a specialized program from health services and were near the infected for a certain period of time.
Devices – whether iPhones or Android smartphones will exchange data over short range Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Unlike GPS signals or cell towers, Bluetooth does not establish a physical location of a person.
Instead of tracking geolocation the new system will receive signals from nearby smartphones with a 5-minute interval, and then record them into the database. To preserve the anonymity of the person reporting a positive diagnosis COVID-19, will be transferred not the data from his devices, and anonymous key whose value changes every 15 minutes.
the medical institutions will leave the possibility to assess the risk of infection COVID-19 in accordance with their standards. To set the threshold, for example, for the duration of the contact or distance will be via a new API. However, to use it in applications that also request access to geolocation, Apple and Google strongly banned.
Text: To.Hi-tech
