NHS COVID-19 app update blocked by Apple, Google over location privacy fears
- Reference: 1618295229
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/13/uk_covid_app/
- Source link:
The arm of the National Health Service that developed the app signed an agreement with both tech giants that it would not gather location data through the software in order to protect people's privacy. The latest update, however, allows folks to share a log of places where they have checked-in as a way of warning other users.
[1]
Users of the app have been able to scan a QR code when entering a public location or venue such as a shop or restaurant – many of which are [2]required to display a sign with such a code – but the data remained on the phone.
When local authorities identified a location as being a hotspot for COVID-19, it would be added to a central database, the mobile app would check to see if user has been near locations in the database, and if so, relay this to the user. The new update, however, would allow users to upload their location data if, for example, a user tested positive and wanted to alert others of where they had been. The update was timed to coincide with a [3]relaxation of lockdown rules in the United Kingdom.
[4]
Apple and Google have both decided that this additional data sharing violates the agreement the NHS signed with them, however, and have blocked the new code from being rolled out to handsets. People are still able to download and use the old version.
The UK government’s Department of Health has not explained how it managed to develop an entire update without realizing it would be blocked. An [5]FAQ [PDF] written by Google and Apple last year stated clearly its COVID-19 notifications system for apps “does not share location data from the user’s device with the Public Health Authority, Apple, or Google.”
So trying to find a way around that policy decision was unlikely to be welcomed. In an [6]update last week, the government announced the “venue history sharing” plan and described it as “privacy-protecting.” We were told:
If an app user tests positive, they will be asked to share their venue history in a privacy-protecting way via the app. This will allow venue alerts to be generated more quickly, and improve the ability to identify where outbreaks are occurring and take steps to prevent the virus spreading.
Presumably the Department of Health thought that allowing the sharing to be opt-in and seeking (or pushing) for user action to share the data rather than automating it would be a way around the restriction.
The blunder, reported by [7]the BBC here , reminds us of the UK government’s [8]earlier attempts to create an app that would allow data to be stored and shared by fudging a rarely used Bluetooth connectivity feature of the phones’ operating systems: an approach that ultimately failed, and the NHS was forced to use special notification APIs set by the tech giants for COVID-19 apps.
It’s tempting to view the blocking as another example of how tech companies are more powerful than governments thanks to their control of mobile operating systems on devices that billions of people carry around with them at all times. But in this case, the UK government did sign an agreement and it’s not hard to see how the update would break it.
[9]
In the meantime, Scotland, for one, has come up with an alternative solution to gathering the same sort of data: it has created an entirely separate app called Check In Scotland that does the same thing but doesn’t directly feed into its contact-tracing app called Protect Scotland. ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YHVru-09bd0RoSzlkw0CVwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01183/en-us
[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reopening-businesses-and-venues-in-england/reopening-businesses-and-venues#step-2---from-12-april
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YHVru-09bd0RoSzlkw0CVwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://covid19-static.cdn-apple.com/applications/covid19/current/static/contact-tracing/pdf/ExposureNotification-FAQv1.2.pdf
[6] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/twice-weekly-rapid-testing-to-be-available-to-everyone-in-england
[7] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56713017
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/05/uk_coronavirus_app/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YHVru-09bd0RoSzlkw0CVwAAAIw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
“ how it managed to develop an entire update without realizing it would be blocked”
Sheer, bloody minded, incompetence for the win.
Every time!
Re: “ how it managed to develop an entire update without realizing it would be blocked”
its just embarrassing . I feel embarrassed to be British .
Theres foreigners reading this!
Obviously...
Someone up top thought no one would check. By tomorrow it'll be the EU's fault.
Re: Obviously...
Yes because the EU are one of the few organisations powerful enough to take on big tech, who came up with the whole "Governments shouldn't be using this to spy on their population" rule.
Of course the bigger problem is that the EU agree with that sentiment.
Re: Obviously...
"By tomorrow it'll be the EU's fault."
Unfortunately for Johnson and co. Brexit has shot that fox and now the government and its supporters are having to confect disagreements and rows with the EU so as they can continue blaming someone else for their mistakes.
Like all authoritarian governments they have to have an external enemy or their grasp on the levers of power will be lost.
See also: Leopoldo Galtieri and the Falklands War to see how well that worked out.
Not the first and won't be the last
Attempt at trying to keep tabs on everyone all of the time.
Even after this pandemic I am sure the government would try to find reasons for keeping track and trace. "Just in case"
Re: Not the first and won't be the last
Just in case somebody competent takes charge?
Vaccination, vaccination, and, once more, vaccination!
This is what will help. These tracking gimmicks are just another kind of surveillance pushed under the pretense of "fighting the pandemics". Tracking won't protect you from COVID-19 (or anything else, as a matter of fact). Yes, you may learn postfactum you might have gotten infected when you visited that brothel (or an opera). Does this help much?
Re: Vaccination, vaccination, and, once more, vaccination!
Big brother aside, yes the apps can help. After my trip to the brothel, were I to get a notification I might decide to stay home and not go to the Opera, maybe not pop round to see Granny his weekend, or at least take a lateral flow test or two before going back in to work. So I break the chain of infection.
I'm not saying that the half hearted current English implementation of track and trace is going to do that. I am sure at least 50% of the people who originally downloaded the Covid app have since upgraded their phones and no longer have it loaded, but I'm sure the clear messaging, relentless TV adverts and the big billboards on the side of buildings and buses will remind them to reload it before drunkenly embracing their mates at the Dog and Duck.
Enjoy the end of this lockdown, see you all on zoom when we lock down again in June!
Re: Vaccination, vaccination, and, once more, vaccination!
We might be OK in June, mostly due to the weather, but September.... Who am I kidding, the response will be needed in September, it won't happen until November at the earliest.
NHS COVID-19 app update blocked by Apple, Google over location privacy fears
yeah, I saw this yesterday, life imitating life, pot meet kettle, etc. Funny haha, never mind the context, i.e. how many billions of quid? 30, to mushroom towards 60?
Re: NHS COVID-19 app update blocked by Apple, Google over location privacy fears
Governent funding for software seems to be on a "per unit produced " basis , like it was a tangible thing that needs a production line and raw materials for each instance.
Its like the beancounters havent grasped the difference between buying software and writing it.
Shock
I wonder how much tax payer money got spaffed on this clever update? Nice to see Google and Apple not allowing such abuse even from a monopoly giant as a government.
May the lockdown be ending, freedom returning and the gov sod off with its tracking desires.
Re: Shock
maybe they watching this software like a hawk and holding it up at every turn , hoping they give up and buy google soulution instead
"the agreement the NHS signed with them"
I thought the NHS had nothing to do with 'NHS track and trace', and that the name was just a branding exercise to get people to trust the app?
So why is there a contact signed by the NHS?
They never store and share location data?
I'm pretty confident that Google stores and shares my phones location data all the time. I suspect that the NHS would be able to do this if they told Apple and Google that they were just using it to send users a few COVID-19 advertisements every time they browsed the Internet or used other apps.