UK NHS undecided on contact tracing app, switch to Apple-Google API being considered
The U.K. National Health Service is charging ahead with plans to release its contact tracing app, despite there still being unanswered questions about its functionality.
The rollout of the U.K. contact tracing app has been beset by confusion. Credit: AFP
Unlike countries like Switzerland and Latvia, the U.K. decided earlier in 2020 to reject the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API in favor of its own system. That was apparently due to disagreements about how data about exposure and contact data should be stored.
The BBC reported on Thursday that ministers are still "considering switching the app over to tech developed by Apple and Google." That's due to concerns about the risks of the country's current "go-it-alone" contact tracing initiative.
Although originally planned for a May release, the U.K.'s app has yet to debut. It is currently being tested on the Isle of Wight, according to The Times, with plans to release it "within a fortnight." But early trials of the app on the island have confused some testers.
Some of the confusion is tied to a feature called an "amber warning," which is sent to a user's phone when they've been in contact with a person who self-reports symptoms but hasn't been officially diagnosed.
The Times notes that some testers criticized the warning "as it raised their anxiety without giving clear instructions as to what they could and could not do."
Another issue could be the use of the app in crowded housing environments, such as apartment towers. Because of the proximity of people in these areas, users could potentially get exposure notifications from people they've never actually been in contact with. On May 19, a pair of security researchers based in Australia also identified seven security flaws within the app's source code.
Earlier in May, the NHS was apparently mulling a switch to the Apple-Google API. As of early June, the NHS itself didn't appear to have any plans to do so.
The head of the NHSX, Matthew Gould, made it clear that the decision to forego the Silicon Valley solution wasn't set in stone. "If it becomes clear that a different approach is a better one and achieves the things that we need to achieve more effectively, we will change," Gould told a parliamentary committee on May 4.
Digital contact tracing efforts are further ahaed in Europe than they are in the U.S, where only a handful of states have apps available or in testing.
The rollout of the U.K. contact tracing app has been beset by confusion. Credit: AFP
Unlike countries like Switzerland and Latvia, the U.K. decided earlier in 2020 to reject the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API in favor of its own system. That was apparently due to disagreements about how data about exposure and contact data should be stored.
The BBC reported on Thursday that ministers are still "considering switching the app over to tech developed by Apple and Google." That's due to concerns about the risks of the country's current "go-it-alone" contact tracing initiative.
Although originally planned for a May release, the U.K.'s app has yet to debut. It is currently being tested on the Isle of Wight, according to The Times, with plans to release it "within a fortnight." But early trials of the app on the island have confused some testers.
Some of the confusion is tied to a feature called an "amber warning," which is sent to a user's phone when they've been in contact with a person who self-reports symptoms but hasn't been officially diagnosed.
The Times notes that some testers criticized the warning "as it raised their anxiety without giving clear instructions as to what they could and could not do."
Another issue could be the use of the app in crowded housing environments, such as apartment towers. Because of the proximity of people in these areas, users could potentially get exposure notifications from people they've never actually been in contact with. On May 19, a pair of security researchers based in Australia also identified seven security flaws within the app's source code.
Earlier in May, the NHS was apparently mulling a switch to the Apple-Google API. As of early June, the NHS itself didn't appear to have any plans to do so.
The head of the NHSX, Matthew Gould, made it clear that the decision to forego the Silicon Valley solution wasn't set in stone. "If it becomes clear that a different approach is a better one and achieves the things that we need to achieve more effectively, we will change," Gould told a parliamentary committee on May 4.
Digital contact tracing efforts are further ahaed in Europe than they are in the U.S, where only a handful of states have apps available or in testing.
Comments
"The U.K. National Health Service is charging ahead with plans to release its contact tracing app, despite there still being unanswered questions about its functionality."
Wha...? The headline and first sentence of this article seem not to agree.
A sh*tshow rivalled only by the clusterf**ks running in the US and Sweden.
Not even sure why they're bothering. That ship has sailed.
The lockdown pretty much collapsed when the man who's actually running the country decided to take a sixty-mile drive to 'test his eyesight'.
Don't they realise what can be done on a smartphone these days? I'm sure an iPhone and even an Android phone is capable of iterating over a couple of lists and looking for matches.
Ah yes, Baroness Dido Harding:
- Former chief executive of the TalkTalk Group which leaked personal and banking details of up to four million customers, cost them £60m and lost them 95,000 customers.
- Sits on the board of the Jockey Club, which decided to go ahead with the Cheltenham Festival in the middle of a pandemic where 250,000 people congregated together to watch horses race and to catch a disease spread by close contact with infected people.
- And if nepotism is your thing, wife of John Penrose, Conservative MP for Weston-super-Mare.
A triple-whammy! She is unqualified for this role.
The spokesman declined to comment because the person who would craft a response wasn't back from another 60-mile round-trip after thinking his eyes were a bit dodgy and needing to pile his family into the car to see if he could drive 250 miles.