Linux Foundation launches new initiative to fight COVID-19 with Apple-Google API

Credit: LFPH

The Linux Foundation on Monday announced a new initiative to leverage open source tech, including the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API, to combat coronavirus.

At first, the Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) project will focus on exposure notification apps that use the Apple-Google API. The framework launched in May 2020, but has yet to see widespread adoption globally.

Along with seven initial primary members, the LFPH initiative is also making its debut with two hosted exposure notification projects dubbed COVID Shield and COVID Green. Both are said to be launching in Canada, Ireland and several U.S. states.

Eventually, the LFPH project aims to support every step of the way for public health authorities in the battle against COVID-19. That includes supporting testing, tracing, and isolation activities, all with open source technology.

"To catalyze this open source development, Linux Foundation Public Health is building a global community of leading technology and consulting companies, public health authorities, epidemiologists, and other public health specialists, privacy and security experts, and individual developers," LFPH General Manager Dan Kohn said.

COVID Shield, developed by a team at Shopify, leverages the Apple-Google framework and is currently being deployed in Canada. COVID Green, on the other hand, was created by volunteers at NearForm and will roll out in Ireland.

The seven "premier members" of the LFPH include Cisco, doc.ai, geometer, IBM, NearForm, Tencent and VMWare.

Along with Canada and Ireland, other European countries have launched contact tracing apps based on the Apple and Google system. As of writing, they include Latvia, Switzerland, Italy and Germany.

Several U.S. states have signaled that they plan on developing Exposure Notification apps using the tech giants' platform, though no app has been released thus far.

On Friday, however, the Association of Public Health Laboratories announced that they were partnering with Apple, Google and Microsoft to build out a national server to securely store COVID-19 Exposure Notification data.

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5 Comments

georgie01

said about 3 years ago

When I was reading this article I became strangely aware of the potential for this ‘technology’ to be used in a way we’d never accept currently. Societies (unfortunately) accept drastic changes if they’re presented in small increments—first a limited number of people accept contact tracing for the coronavirus because they think it might be beneficial, then we are asked to use contact tracing for the purposes of tracking the spread of a virus like the flu, and then the technology starts being used for other things which are argued to be good and beneficial, etc.

By itself that seems conspiracy theory worthy, but when taken in light of all that’s currently going on (i.e. mass population manipulation on cultural issues, or riots which are portrayed as peaceful protests yet somehow causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, etc.), the idea seems more plausible.

fastasleep

said about 3 years ago

georgie01 said:

When I was reading this article I became strangely aware of the potential for this ‘technology’ to be used in a way we’d never accept currently. Societies (unfortunately) accept drastic changes if they’re presented in small increments—first a limited number of people accept contact tracing for the coronavirus because they think it might be beneficial, then we are asked to use contact tracing for the purposes of tracking the spread of a virus like the flu, and then the technology starts being used for other things which are argued to be good and beneficial, etc.

By itself that seems conspiracy theory worthy, but when taken in light of all that’s currently going on (i.e. mass population manipulation on cultural issues, or riots which are portrayed as peaceful protests yet somehow causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, etc.), the idea seems more plausible.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

Rayz2016

said about 3 years ago

fastasleep said:

georgie01 said:

When I was reading this article I became strangely aware of the potential for this ‘technology’ to be used in a way we’d never accept currently. Societies (unfortunately) accept drastic changes if they’re presented in small increments—first a limited number of people accept contact tracing for the coronavirus because they think it might be beneficial, then we are asked to use contact tracing for the purposes of tracking the spread of a virus like the flu, and then the technology starts being used for other things which are argued to be good and beneficial, etc.

By itself that seems conspiracy theory worthy, but when taken in light of all that’s currently going on (i.e. mass population manipulation on cultural issues, or riots which are portrayed as peaceful protests yet somehow causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, etc.), the idea seems more plausible.

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

Nicely done. 👏🏾👏🏾

svanstrom

said about 3 years ago

georgie01 said:

When I was reading this article I became strangely aware of the potential for this ‘technology’ to be used in a way we’d never accept currently. Societies (unfortunately) accept drastic changes if they’re presented in small increments—first a limited number of people accept contact tracing for the coronavirus because they think it might be beneficial, then we are asked to use contact tracing for the purposes of tracking the spread of a virus like the flu, and then the technology starts being used for other things which are argued to be good and beneficial, etc.

By itself that seems conspiracy theory worthy, but when taken in light of all that’s currently going on (i.e. mass population manipulation on cultural issues, or riots which are portrayed as peaceful protests yet somehow causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, etc.), the idea seems more plausible.

And then suddenly we're all eating Soylent Green…?

You flagging your own post as "conspiracy theory worthy" doesn't make your ideas less [insert polite synonym for "stupid].

chasm

said about 3 years ago

Two important points to remind the tinfoil-hat crowd:

1. Exposure-notification apps using the Apple-Google API depends on a) user permission, and the b) anonymizes the user and c) anonymizes the location, so no authority has any idea who you are or where you are. You are simply notified when you have been in the presence (for more than a very short time) of someone (not identified) who has tested positive — you are not given location information of where that happened. You are simply informed of the contact, and asked to get tested. That’s it. The servers create anonymizes aggregate data of movement and notifications to identify hotspots (you may remember seeing such maps after those covidiots went to Florida for spring break, and then brought the virus home to the Midwest ...), but that’s it in terms of information collection.

2. If you’re worried about being tracked, stop using a cell phone. You cell provider, who is far less trustworthy than Apple, collects and sells your real-time location data to literally anyone who wants it, and monitors it continuously. They also know you have (SMS) messaged and called, and other data and patterns/routine.

Your health authorities (and in particular this Apple-led initiative) are not another source of your issues with privacy. If law enforcement or other government agencies —or, say, the Russians — want to know more about you, they can get way more info from your cell provider, FB account, and Google than Apple could ever want to, or dream of, giving them.

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