Tag Archives: contact tracing

Qatar’s contact tracing app put over one million people’s info at risk

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Contact tracing apps have the potential to slow the spread of COVID-19. But without proper security safeguards, some fear they could put users’ data and sensitive info at risk. Until now, that threat has been theoretical. Today, Amnesty International...

Switzerland pilots a contact tracing app using Apple and Google’s tech

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Switzerland is now piloting a COVID-19 contact tracing app that uses the Apple-Google framework. According to the Swiss university EPFL, the app, SwissCovid, is the first in the world to put the Apple-Google model to use.SwissCovid will use Bluetooth...

Apple and Google’s COVID-19 contact tracing tech is ready

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Today, Apple and Google are releasing their COVID-19 contact tracing technology to public health agencies (PHAs) around the world. So far, 22 countries on five continents have requested the API, which will allow PHAs to develop their own contact trac...

WHO will launch a COVID-19 app for countries that don’t make their own

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Numerous countries have COVID-19 symptom and tracking apps, but the World Health Organization wants to fill in those gaps for the countries that are too stretched to develop their own software. The WHO’s Bernardo Mariano told Reuters in an interview...

Apple and Google tell health departments their privacy requirements for coronavirus tracking

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Apple and Google have stipulated how public health authorities around the world can use their upcoming coronavirus tracking system in an effort to preserve user privacy. Representatives from the two companies announced today that, in addition to stan...

France will start testing its COVID-19 tracking app the week of May 11th

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France was one of the first countries scrambling to create a COVID-19 contact tracing app, and now it’s close to finding out how its app works in practice. Digital Affairs Minister Cedric O has stated (via Reuters) that France’s StopCOVID should ente...

Senate bill would set privacy requirements for COVID-19 tracking

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Now that COVID-19 lockdowns are slowly starting to lift in the US, a group of senators want to set privacy expectations for the contact tracing apps that could help keep the virus in check. Senators Marsha Blackburn, Jerry Moran, John Thune and Roger...

UK’s NHS won’t use Apple-Google approach to COVID-19 tracking

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Apple and Google are expected to release their contact tracing technology to developers tomorrow. But the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) says it won’t use the Apple-Google model, BBC reports. While the two tech companies are working on a “decentr...

Australia rolls out COVID-19 tracking app with privacy concerns

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COVID-19 contact tracing apps are arriving in earnest, and it’s clear that privacy is as much of an issue as the effectiveness of the apps. Australia has launched its tracing app, COVIDSafe, despite criticisms of its approach to privacy. The voluntar...

Contact tracing apps are coming whether we like it or not

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The University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute advised the NHS this week that “a contact-tracing app could help stop the coronavirus pandemic, but 80 percent of current smartphone owners would need to use it.”Can you imagine trying to get 80 percent o...