The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) has said that the proposed Apple-Google Coronavirus app plan won't work on the country. With the security issues surrounding the app, the health agency rejects how the app proposedly works. The NHS said that the software can be used by the British government on one condition-- by introducing a centralized contact tracing.
U.K. doesn't like how Apple-Google COVID-19 app works
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In a recent report of BBC, the government of the U.K. has identified a few risks on how the app is proposed to be used by citizens. The agency said that the Apple-Google COVID-19 app may work "sufficiently well" on iPhones if only the app won't excessively use battery life.
Since the app will work as a digital contact tracer that collects data and alarms, anyone that has a contact with a positive patient, Apple, and Google, said that the app may cost heavy energy from the phones-- since it needs to be kept active and on-screen to work.
This is what NHS does not want for their COVID-19 app.
NHS clarified that there could be ways for the app to work without using too much battery life from the users' phones. This is where the idea of a "centralized" contact tracing app occurs.
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What is the "centralized" COVID-19 app?
As explained via BBC, a centralized contact tracing app or COVID-19 app is designed to alert people that had close contact with a patient automatically. What's the difference in the proposed plan by Apple and Google will be where the info will be generally stored.
Compared to Apple-Google which has a "decentralized" approach-- where the matches take place on the user's devices, the centralized approach will depend on a computer server. This technology will save all the personal info and will primarily send the alerts on potential carriers.
"One of the advantages is that it's easier to audit the system and adapt it more quickly as scientific evidence accumulates," Prof Christophe Fraser, one of the epidemiologists advising NHSX, told the BBC. "The principal aim is to give notifications to people who are most at risk of having got infected, and not to people who are much lower risk. It's probably easier to do that with a centralized system."
Not everyone likes the "centralized" app
As usual, not everyone on the British government has the same mindset as the agency. Apple and Google, mainly, expressed their dismay with what the U.K. wants for the app.
They believed that the app will work and provide more privacy with their plan since it limits the access of hackers to infiltrate the database-- using only a computer server.
As of now, the finalities about the app are still being discussed by both parties.
