UK’s Contact Tracing App To Be Rolled Out In A Couple Of Weeks

A woman passes NHS rainbow posters in an estate agent's window in south London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of coronavirus. (Photo by Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images)
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LONDON — An official says the British government’s virus contact tracing app will be ready in two to three weeks.

Britain and many other countries are developing mobile apps to help reduce infections after they ease lockdown restrictions.

Matthew Gould, CEO of the National Health Service’s digital transformation unit, says a San Francisco-based software company Pivotal Labs has done most of the work building the app.

He told Parliament’s science and technology select committee the rollout will be part of a wider post-lockdown strategy that includes expanded testing.

The app will use Bluetooth signals to anonymously log when a user comes into close contact with others. The data is kept on devices. But if users later develop COVID-19 symptoms or get positive test result, they can choose to upload the data to a central server so those contacts can be alerted.

Gould says such an approach would maintain user privacy while allowing authorities to see any patterns in the movement of the virus.

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  1. Six weeks minimum, and an abject failure.

    Funny how the alt-right dreamboat leaders in both countries are screwing it so hard.

  2. Avatar for ottis ottis says:

    Big brother is here! Are you ready? It has been nice. Bye Bye!

  3. Naw, this is Big Brother 2.0. Levels of surveillance we can’t even wrap our heads around in a “democracy”.

    And once it’s in the wild, it’s here to stay, and won’t nearly stay at “harmless” contact tracing for Covid.

  4. All of our computer use is mined, stored and available. If you spend 14 hours a day on the internet, that data is available along with what sites you visit and what searches you have done. Smartphones are like personal GPS tracking devices. Cars? Many new cars are connected to the internet 24/7, some with cameras both inside and outside the car. You’re on camera in the parking lot of most stores and when you enter and also while shopping. Public transportation and transportation hubs like airports, train and bus stations etc are all equipped with cameras. Some have facial recognition technology. We don’t need to be micro- chipped, but we all will be someday.

  5. All fair points, but to date, it’s been a relatively fragmented system, so unless they’re following you specifically, you’re relatively ok.

    This next leap pulls many of the strings together, in a very easy and enticing package for governments to use for all sorts of shit.

    Simplest thing I can think of, they won’t even have to bother breaking up your protest. They’ll give orders to disperse, then go home.

    And arrest every attendee who didn’t disperse a few days later at home, having just pulled up the tracking data to verify who was in the zone and where they went.

    Something that would take tons of time, money and effort right now becomes something that you can get at the click of a button.

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