Google and Apple have announced that they are building a new system in our phones which use Bluetooth Technology called “Contact Tracing” to trace whether a person near you has symptoms of corona virus or not. If a person tests positive for the virus, the app will send a notification to all of the people near the surroundings.

This new system would use a short-range Bluetooth communication to create a network of contact tracing. Public health Authorities will have access to the data. Users may download the app from their respective app stores when its out.

It will also have the functionality of reporting. If the user tests positive for COVID-19, he can report it on the app. The system also alerts those people’s who have the app whether if they are in contact with the COVID victim or not.

What Is Contact Tracing?

Contact Tracing is going to be an alert-notifiable app which detects if the individual is getting in contact with an infected COVID-19 victim might have change of getting sick. In short looking for a sick person and then figuring out who they had recently contacted with.

This Bluetooth Technology wouldn’t trace physical location of the people. It will catch signals of the phone that are nearby and store the connections in the database. If a person tests positive for the virus, they could tell the app so that all of the other people near them will get a notification.

However, it is a new program. Apple and Google are still planning with the public health authorities about how to manage it. Obviously this will be better than the old previous ways of -contact tracing- which involves interviewing of the infected person.

Pros & Cons Of Contact Tracing System

PROS

The system would enable us to track the virus on individual level. More than approx. 1.5 Billion users of Apple and approx. 2.5 Billion users of Android makes the massive coverage base.

It’s also fabulous that both the companies are working together to fight against the novel disease.

CONS

The system won’t work to a small portion of the people who have downloaded it. Because it will make the system irrelevant of the purpose. For example if a person has tested positive for COVID-19 and he reports it on the app, how the other individual gets to know if they do not have the app.

According to the latest blog posted by Google, “All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID-19 and accelerate the return of everyday life”

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Resouces: theverge, socialmediatoday