Apple-Google add new security features to contact tracing technology

Tech giants, Apple & Google, are reportedly adding new security features to the contact tracing technology that was developed to inform people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

This contact tracing technology has been under development by these companies for over a month. It was initially designed to assist users if people they were in contact with were diagnosed with the COVID-19 disease. Through this technology, alert signals will be sent out to all the phones of the people who the infected person had come in contact with over the last 14 days. This initiative has been taken to help fight the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 people and infected over 2.7 million people globally.

Google has recently stated that it has committed nearly $800 million to help crisis responders and small businesses during the coronavirus crisis. The company and Apple also have begun the manufacturing process and distribution of protective equipment for healthcare workers. Through the recent technology, the companies will develop new apps until a vaccine or other methods to fight the virus are potentially developed.

Google and Apple will provide programming tools to several developers, which will allow health authorities to develop apps with the new technologies, in mid-May. Additionally, the companies plan to offer software updates to nearly 2 billion active devices across the globe that use their software, by 2020 end.

In order to ensure further security and privacy, the two companies are also planning to change the contact tracing program by using better encryption and scaling any identifying information to ensure that the users are not being tracked. They are also changing the terminology of the program from ‘contact tracing’ to ‘exposure notification’ as it better depicts the program functionality, while working to emphasize that the program is ‘privacy-preserving’. They are also planning to dismantle the program when the COVID-19 crisis passes. This will include the shutdown of the API (application programming interface).

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https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-google-address-privacy-concerns-with-coronavirus-tracking-tech/