UK. Google and Apple – Observer against updating the official Govt-19 tracking application

The next update to the NHS Covit-19 application was blocked by the UK and Wales tracking application (equivalent to the Portuguese Stayway Cove), by Google and Apple. How DefenderU.S. companies claim that newer versions violate the privacy policy of Android and iOS mobile operating systems. Because? The British government wanted anyone who installed the app to automatically know which businesses, such as bars and restaurants. Google and Apple claim that this is an abuse of the technology available to them.

Like Steaway Covid, the English app also uses Bluetooth technology to let the user know if he or she has been in contact with a victim for the past 15 days. Due to the lack of clarity in the UK, this application continues to be offered as a solution to mitigate the spread of the epidemic.

Since 2020, the government has been trying to get citizens Check-in [registo de entrada, em português] With application and QR code when entering business enterprises. Then, if that restaurant or bar has been identified as the site of a high number of infections, the user will know. However, this system has never been used much and is not efficient because it does not allow people to share this data with local companies and, therefore, does not trigger these alerts.

After three thousand codes, what happened to the Covit-19 tracking application?

To address this inefficiency, the British government wanted to go further and automate the process. Do you like The user avoids the step of authorizing the app to share the locations it has created Check-in. But this is a violation of the privacy terms of the operating systems in question because there can not be a database of where the users are.

The official applications of each country use specialized access to the operating systems of Google and Apple, and Bluetooth technology can be used more efficiently. Because of this, these companies have to meet certain requirements for each country. In this case, as the same newspaper says, this new update was violated in the summer of 2020, when the application was created between the British government and companies.

In April, before the release of this new version (which was scheduled for the 8th), the Ministry of Health had said that a similar measure could be implemented, but it did not. In the version released by the government, there will always be pre-authorization from the user. In Scotland, for example, the country’s authorities have introduced this feature, but with a new application, it does not have to comply with the rules of Google or Apple.