Google & Apple surprise in the dispute over Corona apps

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Google & Apple surprise in the dispute over Corona apps

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Google and Apple are a thorn in the side of governments' hunger for data during the Corona crisis. Google and Apple are a thorn in the side of governments' hunger for data during the Corona crisis.

The dispute over apps that are supposed to track the spread of the corona virus is currently driving curious blossoms: Because this time it is not the case that state authorities have to limit the data hunger of tech giants – but vice versa.

Corona apps: a more sophisticated »1984«?

Great Britain, France and Germany are currently planning to introduce corona apps and tracing systems that health authorities can use to track the spread of Covid-19. The basic principle: people can voluntarily report symptoms and indicate whether they have tested positive for Corona.

An app will then automatically alert all other people the sick person has had contact with in the past few days and ask them to be tested and quarantined. However, this procedure requires location tracking of the users.

How exactly do the Corona apps and other tracing systems work? There are currently various ideas for implementing such tracking mechanisms. PEPP-PT should serve as a framework for all Corona apps and work across Europe. The concept provides for the storage of user data on a central server.

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In contrast, the Swiss open source project D3PT relies on decentralized tracking, which secures the data on the user devices using the API. The decentralized approach serves the developers of D3PT to ensure maximum privacy protection for the users of this tracing method.

Both systems do not rely on GPS to determine the location of the user – according to the guidelines of the European Commission on contact tracing, such tracking is not desirable because of the effects on user privacy. Instead, the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) protocol is used, which can determine the distance between individual devices using radio signals.

Apple and Google have also already developed a tracing solution that is supposed to work with the help of APIs. Smartphones can exchange a key via this interface, which in the case of a Covid 19 diagnosis is loaded into the cloud with the user's consent. Corona apps can then inform affected contacts of the infected person without the tracking data having to be stored in a central location.

Why are Google and Apple arguing with the federal government? The Federal Government had announced last week, according to ComputerBase, to use the PEPP-PT system. There was, however, criticism from many sides – including from Google and Apple.

Although the use of the app and the tracing systems should remain voluntary, data protection officials fear the increasing surveillance of the population even after the end of the Corona crisis. How Heise reports, Apple and Google are therefore relying on their market power to slow down data control by the state.

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Apps that run in the background and use the BLE only work to a limited extent, especially under iOS: iOS does not allow continuous scanning for Bluetooth signals in the background, as apps developed by European governments so far have required.

Apple and Google have also announced that they will only allow apps with smartphone APIs and continuous use of BLE that meet their privacy standards. It is loud BusinessInsider not the case with apps developed by governments.

Federal government bends to the pressure of privacy advocates and tech giants

However, tracing and alerting Covid 19 patients without the support of Google and Apple is likely to fail from the outset.

Researchers at the University of Oxford in England are loud Heise namely assume that at least 60 percent of the population would have to use an appropriate app for the system to be useful. This, in turn, is likely to be difficult if Apple and Google prevent the installation of related software on iOS and Android.

How ComputerBase reported, the Federal Government has therefore announced that instead of wanting to use the decentralized version of the originally planned central solution using PEPP-PT. Minister of State Helge Braun and Minister of Health Jens Spahn said the upcoming app should be »the programming interfaces (APIs, editor's note) of the major providers of mobile operating systems that will be available shortly«Use.

The use of the app remains as voluntary as the option of submitting additional information to the Robert Koch Institute for research purposes. Data protection experts rated the change of course by the federal government as a "very good decision".

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