In the light of recent events of COVID-19 pandemic, apple and google joined their forces. In order to create an assistant for COVID-19 exposure notifications – The Apple Covid-19 Tracker.
Since it started rolling out and many didn’t know the ropes about it, they are now suspicious their phone is spying on them.
Well, the Apple COVID-19 tracker isn’t that bad, and here is what you need to know.
Understandably, the main concern is that along with the exposure data, the Apple COVID-19 tracker manages and uses personal information.
Well, this is not the case, since this technology works in a certain way so that most of the privacy concerns are eliminated.
In that light, the creation of tracing keys is random, and only the device stores them locally.
Furthermore, Apple COVID-19 tracker uploads only the keys from devices that tested positive to the health organization’s server.
What’s more, privacy is strong with the sole fact that keys use AES encryption and are generated randomly every 10-20minutes.
Finally, the keys don’t encompass location information and everything occurs on a device level, said Apple and Google.
On top of that, the information is only transmitting after a verified COVID-19 test that is positive.
The two giants were thinking about the app like this. And it all happened at the early stages of the pandemic to aid a fight against the coronavirus.
Even more, now that public places are reopening again and while life is recovering, Apple COVID-19 tracker might prove useful.
Moreover, for the tool to be useful, people need to actively use it and not be worried about their privacy.
Also, users need to know that their health information isn’t collected or stored on the central server to which the government has access to.
With Apple COVID-19 tracker, that’s not the case, since the user exclusively needs to install and grant it permissions.
Therefore, that new setting on their IoS or Android device everyone is buzzing isn’t there to steal your data.
The main purpose is to help the apps and services from official health organizations work better, but still, users decide.
Anyhow, this devicer is providing support and efficiency in discovering and giving warnings about COVID-19.
Furthermore, users should give it a shot and try it, as we all need to aid the fight with the coronavirus pandemic.