Apple and Google’s joint effort to help public health authorities track the spread of COVID-19 will begin testing today, the companies said. The companies will deliver an initial version of their exposure notification API to a small number of developers working on apps for public health organizations and test it over the next several weeks. The API is expected to be released more broadly in mid-May.
The two companies have already detailed their privacy measures for the pandemic tracking API. Most importantly, they plan to encrypt Bluetooth metadata. They’re also implementing policies like generating smartphone keys randomly every day, so you can’t easily be associated with a single device. Additionally, they say the API will only be able to track contact with others for 30 minutes at most, and that transmission risk level will only be calculated on users’
“In response to feedback from PHAs [public health authorities], in this update, the companies are giving them the ability to define and calculate a transmission risk level that they can choose to assign to users in the event they’re notified they’ve been exposed to a person who tested positive for COVID-19,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a statement. “Reflecting the reality that not all exposures are equal in nature, the transmission risk level will allow PHAs to evaluate a potential exposure based on characteristics they have gathered about individuals who tested positive and known information such as the approximate distance and duration. Based on this level, developers will also be able to alter their notification messaging to make it more useful and informative.“
Apple is releasing a beta version of Xcode 11.5 and the third beta of iOS 13.5 today. The former includes developer tools for building iOS apps that incorporate the API, and the latter includes the code needed to run the future apps from public health authorities. Google has released similar updates through Google Play Services and Android Developer Studio.
Public health authorities will have control over what they consider a likely exposure, using the API to account for the approximate distance the phones were from one another and how long they spent in proximity. Both are calculated on users’ phones and not shared with the companies.
Apple and Google will release sample code on Friday that’s intended to show developers how to build apps using the system, they said. In the second phase of the project, expected within the coming months, exposure notification will be built directly into iOS and Android.
Apple and Google plan to release more information about the tracking API on Friday, along with code to help developers understand exactly how the notification system works.
