The tech giant's plan to track the infection with your mobile

Together, the companies have operating systems for mobile devices, iOS and Android, almost the entire world market. When these rivals now come together to build a technical solution for infection detection via mobile, it has the potential to become a comprehensive global solution, if those who develop such apps choose to use their platform.

The technical specifications state that privacy must be protected by not using GPS, so you should not find out where any users are located. Contact tracking should only use Bluetooth, which allows phones that are close to each other to automatically exchange identification keys, which are reported to be anonymous. These keys are stored locally on the phone.

The system should be based on voluntary participation. When someone using such an app is found to be infected by Covid-19, you can mark yourself as a Covid-19 carrier. Then the identification keys that show which other app users have been around recently will be uploaded to the cloud, and then a warning will be sent to them as it concerns.

In the past, Singapore has such a voluntary app, TraceTogether, downloaded by over one million inhabitants. Recently, several European countries have announced that they are developing their own variants. Germany and Norway are expected to launch their variants after Easter. In the US, President Trump commented on the Google / Apple Initiative stating that "it is interesting, but many are concerned about individuals' freedom, but we should look into it."

Here in Sweden, the Public Health Authority has previously announced that no infection tracking app is planned. MSB has said that they will soon tell about some digital service around Corona. According to SVT's sources, researchers are working on a Corona app. More and more private initiatives are also emerging, such as "CoronaFree" which is one of the winners of the state initiative "Hack the Crisis".