Releasing its long-awaited smartphone, Apple and Google launched its technology that automatically notifies persons that they been exposed to COVID-19.
According to the companies, 22 nations already pledged while some states in the US are already thinking of voluntarily building phone apps using their software.
The application relies on a Bluetooth wireless technology wherein it detects someone who acquired the app that spent enough time near another application user who tests positive with coronavirus later.
Despite the efforts of some governments, most of them did not pull off the ruling out of their own phone applications to combat the coronavirus pandemic spread.
As most of the apps encountered technical issues with the developers as it is not been adopted in mass.
Such applications use GPS as a tracking system of people's location however Google and Apple currently bans this based on the new protocol of their privacy and accuracy problems.
Agencies of Public Health coming from Germany up to the states of South Carolina and Alabama currently wait for the usage of the Apple-Google model, while other authorities have stated that the tech giants' privacy restrictions will be an obstacle if the workers relating to public health will have no access to the information.
However, the tech giants shared that they are not trying to relieve contact tracing, which is a vital infection control that invests in training public health workers who reach out to people that may have had contact with a person who is infected.
They also added that their automatic exposure alarm system can accelerate the detecting process and can slow down the spread of coronavirus from disease carriers who are interacting with people while not showing any of the said symptoms.
Identifications of the application users will be protected via encryptions and identifier information that changes frequently.
In a joint statement, the companies emphasized that user adoption is the way to succeed, as they believe that such strengthening the privacy protections will encourage most of its users for these apps.
According to the companies, the new technology is a product of an unusual partnership within the rivaling tech giants, wherein they solve certain technical issues that the government went through in developing those Bluetooth-based applications and software.
Moreover, it will lessen iPhones and Android phones' problems in detecting each other as it works across national borders while fixing some problems that caused previous apps to drain the phone's battery.
Based on the statements coming from the states of Alabama, North Dakota, and South Carolina, they are planning to utilize the said application.
North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who is a Republican also shared that they invited other states to participate in the accelerating smartphone technology as it strengthens the existing efforts on contact tracing to aid economies and communities return on their feet.
The state of North currently uses a location-tracking application that is the use of about 4% of the state's residents, despite that it is higher than the US's rate it is still failing based on the experts as it does not comply to the target participation rate.
