Apple, Google begin to spread pro-privacy, batt-friendly coronavirus contact-tracing API for phone apps
- Reference: 1590042426
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/21/apple_google_coronavirus_api/
- Source link:
The basic idea is that you run one of these apps on your phone, and the software uses the [1]Apple-Google-developed interface to communicate with copies of itself on other people's nearby devices over Bluetooth. When someone declares, via the app, that they've likely or certainly caught the COVID-19 bio-nasty, all phones that have been in the vicinity of that person's handheld will find out, alerting their owners that they may have been exposed to the virus. Each country or region is expected to have its own app. No data goes to Apple or Google.
The numbers of people coming in contact with those thought or confirmed to be infected may help experts monitor and analyze the actual spread of the virus. The US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control has warned a large number of people running the contact-tracing software are needed for this all to work properly.
Last month, Apple and Google [2]announced they were working together to augment public health efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, by implementing a "privacy-preserving contact tracing" solution in iOS and Android. This technology is designed to be decentralized and secure, and use Bluetooth radio signals efficiently without taxing devices' batteries.
"Mobile devices can be used in an automated and scalable way to help determine who has been exposed to a person that later reports a positive diagnosis of COVID-19," the internet giants explained in their [3]documentation [PDF]. "For example, they can be used to send a rapid notification to the exposed person with instructions on next steps."
The Exposure Notification API offers a ready-made way for public health agencies to implement contact tracing in apps they're developing. These apps are not a replacement for manual contact tracing, but are intended to add something to the process. What that is exactly is not certain.
Joint front
Apple and Google in a joint statement on Wednesday emphasized that privacy is essential for mobile contact tracing apps to work, in that, people won't want to use an application that spies on who you've been near. Users will get to decide whether they want to receive Exposure Notifications and whether, if diagnosed with COVID-19, whether they will report their health status to the app.
"User adoption is key to success and we believe that these strong privacy protections are also the best way to encourage use of these apps," the odd couple [4]said , noting that the system does not collect or use location data from mobile devices.
The project is designed with two phases in mind. Initially, people will have to download an app backed by a public health agency. There are [5]dozens of contact tracing apps underway on national and regional levels.
Apps using the Apple-Google framework will transmit a random Bluetooth identifier that changes every 10 to 20 minutes, and will receive identifiers broadcast by such apps on other phones.
These identifiers get stored on device. At least once a day, the contact tracing app connects to a health org's server to fetch a list of identifiers associated with individuals who have chosen to report a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. And if there's a match indicating the user was in the vicinity of someone with a positive diagnosis, the user will – if settings allow – be notified and advised on what to do next.
NHS contact tracing app isn't really anonymous, is riddled with bugs, and is open to abuse. Good thing we're not in the middle of a pandemic, eh? [6]READ MORE
Apple and Google insist that no data will be shared with public health authority apps, apart from two exceptions. First, if the user chooses to report a positive diagnosis, their most recent contact identifiers will be added to the server list so other users linked to those identifiers can be notified.
Second, if the user receives a contact notification, the system will share the day contact was recorded, how long contact lasted, and the Bluetooth signal strength during that period.
In the second phase of this project, Apple and Google plan to bake contact tracing tech into their respective mobile operating systems. "After the operating system update is installed and the user has opted in, the system will send out and listen for the Bluetooth beacons as in the first phase, but without requiring an app to be installed," the companies explain.
This API, they insist, will only be available to public health officials, and their apps must abide by specific privacy, security, and data control rules. Phase two is projected to arrive "in the coming months."
Hmm, about that
Among technologists and privacy experts, there's skepticism that contact tracing apps will work well enough to be useful. In a Brookings Institution [7]blog post last month, privacy researcher Ashkan Soltani, law professor Ryan Calo, and biology professor Carl Bergstrom argued that contact tracing apps at best will be only marginally helpful to limit the spread of COVID-19, and could harm privacy and enable malicious attacks.
One of the issues, cited by Soltani when The Register spoke with him about [8]contact tracing apps in the UK and Australia , is that mass adoption is necessary to be effective.
With only 81 per cent of people in the US having smartphones, we could only capture about 65 per cent of exposure events, based on Metcalfe's Law of network scale. And that's if every single smartphone owner ran a compatible contact tracing app, a rather unlikely scenario.
In Singapore, a contact tracing app made without the Apple-Google framework was downloaded by just [9]one in six people .
Then there's the potential for abuse, the possibility of false positives and false negatives, and the chance that privacy protections will be permanently weakened if health tracking technology gets put into place without an accompanying legal framework.
But presumably Apple and Google felt it was better to propose a technological common ground for contact tracing apps than to deal with the politically fraught task of policing home-grown implementations developed without much consideration for privacy or security. ®
[1] https://www.apple.com/covid19/contacttracing
[2] https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/apple-and-google-partner-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/
[3] https://covid19-static.cdn-apple.com/applications/covid19/current/static/contact-tracing/pdf/ExposureNotification-FAQv1.1.pdf
[4] https://www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/apple-google-exposure-notification-api-launches/
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=COVID-19_apps&oldid=957731909
[6] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/14/nhs_contact_tracing_app/
[7] https://www.brookings.edu/techstream/inaccurate-and-insecure-why-contact-tracing-apps-could-be-a-disaster/
[8] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/09/coronavirus_tracing_app_source_code/
[9] https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/about-one-million-people-have-downloaded-the-tracetogether-app-but-more-need-to-do-so-for
Re: It's a sad day
however, the world gets weirder by the year. Whats next ? FBI or NSA being identified as t.rr.r.sts ?
Already known to have indulged in criminal activity. That is, if anyone else did it. I await the release of M$ Linux with the APT package manager and RPM packages, requiring alien, scripted in PowerShell. Local cats and dogs already live together in harmony
Aww bless. Apple actually collaborating with others for a change. Shame it took a global pandemic to make it happen.
I still can't see it becoming a habit though.
I still trust Apple over Google - at least it generates most of its income from things that do NOT aggressively violate privacy to grab people's data. I suspect that they're also the reason they seem to use DP-3T as protocol (the transmission of randomised data suggests this), but I would not trust Google to not "accidentally*" store that data for much longer.
* That is "accidentally" as in "accidentally" installing a full WiFi recording facility including backend to hold the collected data during their Streetview exercise..
Accidentally
Yes, accidentally indeed.
"No data goes to Apple or Google"
I have no way of knowing if that is true, but I do know that if I am on a recent version of Android and I want to enable bluetooth to use one of these apps, then in order to do so, thanks to recent "improvements in security" and to "protect me from apps being able to track me silently" I now have to first enable fine location services and gps, and leave them running all the time in order for BLE to work.
This means location services are available for Google and other apps to use as they please unless I take the trouble to go and specifically deny access individually. I am sure that is accidental too.
Re: Accidentally
Apparently part of the issue with location services and Bluetooth BLE, is the increasing use of Bluetooth beacons. If BLE could be enabled without location services being on, it would still mean some apps could find your location via the beacons. Therefore Google pushed BLE into location services, so turn location off, you also turn BLE off.
Not saying this was the right choice, but I can sort of understand the rational.
Personally I'd much rather have more granular control of a device, and be able to explicitly switch on/off regular Bluetooth, BLE, GPS etc all separately, and also deny, by default, any apps from accessing those services, and only enable it on a per app, per function basis. But I suspect this goes directly against what Google are trying to do with Android!
Will my data be monetized by Google or Apple?
No, there will be no monetization from this project by Apple or Google. Consistent with well- established privacy principles, both companies are minimizing data used by the system and relying on users’ devices to process information.
I see that winged pigs can now make use of Heathrow and Gatwick for practice.
You can pay extra for ad-free versions....
When the ads change from hydroxychloroquine to undertakers you know there is a problem....
Batt friendly?
Bat friendly, didn't it originate in Bats :)
Re: Batt friendly?
Expect Trump to charge them shortly.
"the politically fraught task of policing home-grown implementations"
Now that I can understand. And we have a magnificent example, don't we, NHS ?
I do prefer that the two major players get their teams on this issue and iron out a common solution. I like that they say that no data goes back either of them, but I'll wait until the experts demonstrate that that is true.
In any case, I do believe that Google & Apple (Googapple ?) are less of a risk than some local company who got the job because the CEO goes golfing with the minister's brother.
Plus, at least the techs in both companies know exactly what their platform can do and how to call on it most efficiently. Knowing how to program an app for a mobile platform does not mean you know how to do the job using the least amount of power possible.
So good on Googapple. Let's just keep in mind the age-old adage : trust, but verify.
Shame in a way it's a closed API
Shame in a way it's a closed API (although I very much understand why that's the case).
As someone, or more likely a team, could knock up a UK Open Sourced version, using the API, and with none of the centralised crap. Fully peer reviewed etc.
This could then get promoted by all the various privacy groups etc that are currently lambasting the NHS version.
Won't happen though, as they'd need access to the API, and cooperation from the NHS for the testing positive side of things.
It's hard to think of a worse idea. It just won't work. The way out of these is not to trust people to advertise their status (how would they even know) and to go go into hiding instantly if they get a notification (what happens of it comes when they are 200 miles away from home) while simultaneously handing governments the biggest surveillance opportunity in history.
Anyway, it uses bluetooth, so it has by definition failed already. Let's entrust the lives of thousands to a technology which after twenty years can't transfer a file reliably, shall we?
BLE isn't really "Bluetooth" in that respect
What happens if you have come into contact with someone who later tests positive and should be self isolating but your bluetooth registers a contact with someone new?
I don't think anyone has said this and it's important because the implications are huge from a policing perspective depending on how the government proceeds. Will they introduce fines? Forced quarantine? Will this new contact be informed they need to self isolate as well? I really don't like where this is all going.
re: should be self-isolating
The whole point is that they will just know that identifier 817398714354652 should be self isolating and isn't - they won't know who it is.
Re: re: should be self-isolating
817398714354652 is a dick, never liked the.
Re: re: should be self-isolating
The specification paper for DP-3T on GitHub, isn't totally clear on this.
it is clear that once someone declares they are infected, their app will forward their current id to the central system/DB and then generate a new id.
What is not clear is whether this new id is temporary ie. valid for 3 weeks of self-isolation. or what. and whether other devices can on seeing this id. immediately identify it as being a live CoViD19 carrier and thus avoid immediately.
I would hope that some more detail does exist on this important aspect of the app.
> should be self isolating but your bluetooth registers a contact with someone new
It is bound to happen, unless you self-isolate on a desert island. In an city apartment bluetooth is able to go through the walls and all your immediate neighbors and their visitors, despite not seeing you, will keep "contacting" you, isolation or not.
But on the other hand I guess it doesn't really matter, since the app only knows two statuses, "healthy" and "sick", so as long as you don't pull the "I've got Covid-19 myself" lever, you are deemed just another healthy citizen, even if you've potentially become sick and infectious.
False positive and false negative numbers will most likely be huge, but hey, we've been doing something!
It's a sad day
when Google and Apple are trusted more than the Government.