Fatima Rizvi
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- Apr 11, 2020
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In a major U-turn, the UK is ditching the way its current coronavirus-tracing app works and shifting to a model based on technology provided by Apple and Google.
The Apple-Google design has been promoted as being more privacy-focused.
However, it means epidemiologists will have access to fewer data.
The government now intends to launch an app in the autumn, however, it says the product may not involve contact tracing at that point.
Instead, the software may be limited to enabling users to report their symptoms and order a test.
Baroness Dido Harding - who heads up the wider Test and Trace program - will only give the green light to actually deploying the Apple-Google technology if she judges it to be fit for purpose, which she does not believe is the case at present. It is possible this may never happen.
Distance calculations
The NHS has been testing both systems against each other, over the course of the past month.
The centralized version trialed on the Isle of Wight worked well at assessing the distance between two users but was poor at recognizing Apple's iPhones.
Specifically, the software registered about 75% of nearby Android handsets but only 4% of iPhones.
By contrast, the Apple-Google model logged 99% of both Android mobiles and iPhones. But its distance calculations were weaker.
In some instances, it could not differentiate between a phone in a user's pocket 1m (3.3ft) away and a phone in a user's hand 3m (9.8ft) away.
Experiments in Ireland have flagged a similar issue.
At the Downing Street briefing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock suggested the original plan might have worked had it not been for Apple's restrictions on third-party apps' use of Bluetooth.
"Apple software prevents iPhones being used effectively for contact tracing unless you're using Apple's own technology," he said.
"Our app won't work because Apple won't change that system... and their app can't measure distance well enough to a standard that we are satisfied with.
"What matters is what works. Because what works will save lives."
Baroness Harding added: "What we've done in really rigorously testing both our own Covid-19 app and the Google-Apple version is demonstrate that none of them are working sufficiently well enough to be actually reliable to determine whether any of us should self-isolate for two weeks [and] that's true across the world."
In response, Google noted that it and Apple had developed an application programming interface - a set of functions and procedures for others to build on - rather than a fully-fledged app.
"We have developed an Exposure Notification API with Apple based on consultation with public health experts around the world, including in the UK, to ensure that our efforts are useful to authorities as they build their own apps to limit the spread of Covid-19 while ensuring privacy and security are central to the design," added a spokeswoman.
The latest developments come a day after the BBC revealed that a former Apple executive, Simon Thompson, was taking charge of the late-running project as part of Baroness Harding's team.
