Mike Peterson
In what could herald a course reversal for the UK's National Health Service, health officials in that country have reportedly asked a team of developers to "investigate" switching its contact tracing app to a cross-platform API provided by Apple and Google.
The NHS is this week scheduled to begin testing an in-house contact tracing solution as part of wider efforts to monitor and mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Like France, the UK rejected an arguably more comprehensive API from Apple and Google in favor of a solution capable of storing user information in a central database.
It now appears that UK officials have contracted a Swiss development firm to refine the NHS contact tracing app before it sees mass circulation. According to documents seen by The Financial Times, that refinement also includes investigating the "feasibility" of implementing the Apple-Google technology.
The development company's work is described as a "two-week timeboxed technical spike" with a deadline of mid-May.
"We've been working with Apple and Google throughout the app's development and it's quite right and normal to continue to refine the app," an NHSX spokesperson told the publication. NHSX is the digital arm of the NHS and is in charge of developing the COVID-19 contact tracing app.
The decision to pass on the Apple-Google API was criticized by privacy advocates and technologists. Some of the concerns include the privacy implications of centrally stored data, as well as issues with Bluetooth running in the background on iOS.
Sources told The Guardian on Wednesday that NHS officials were "racing" to improve the privacy and security of its platform.
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10 Comments
LOL - Love the Brits, but their gov't is just as screwed up as the US
Awesome! Everyone should use the same!
Australia has had an app out for about a week now, maybe a little longer but apparently it doesn't pick up Bluetooth contacts reliably on the iPhone unless the app is currently running in the foreground. Authors claim it is not an issue on droid.
Edit - Oh, just noticed this:
https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/215727/
Actually not looking as bad as first thought.
Developed by Pivotal, a subsidiary of VMware and using algorithms from Oxford University.
Seems to have gotten round issues suffered by other centralised apps.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52551273
What the British government have failed to understand is the most important thing is as many people as possible use this app if it is to be useful.
More people will use it if they trust its authors.
Nobody, but the odd fool, will trust a poorly funded, poorly staffed, NHS digital department