A major update to the NHS Covid-19 app should mean it's better at identifying people who've been in contact with someone infected But has the government got the balance right between privacy and effectiveness?
A major update to the NHS Covid-19 app should mean that it is better at identifying people who have been in contact with someone infected with the virus.But the way the app is designed using a privacy-focused toolkit provided by Apple and Google means it will be very difficult to know what effect it is having.It is clear that the team behind the NHS app can get only limited data about its effectiveness.
In the summer, the first version of the NHS app, which collected more data centrally was abandoned, partly because it was failing to identify contacts between some Apple iPhones. The second version, launched in England and Wales in late September, was built on the decentralised model designed by Apple and Google.
He says, for example, that users could have been asked when installing the app whether they would provide a phone number so that they could be called when they were being sent into isolation. "That's fine from a privacy point of view," he says. Instead, app users just see an alert - and can choose whether to obey it.
In recent days, some people have contrasted the measures used in the UK with the strategy used in places such as Taiwan or Vietnam which have been much more successful in controlling the virus.
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