About two weeks after Google and Apple announced their joint venture to create and operate a Corona epidemic system via a mobile phone and Bluetooth technology, they called it “Tracking Technology”, the two companies returned to announce a change in the method On the basis of which the system will be designed and operated, so that "issuing alerts" to users about the risks of "Corona" is the basic approach of the system, and not "tracking communications" and tracking data.
The new amendment came as a retreat from the two companies in the face of the wave of anxiety and rejection that the project raised to hundreds of millions of users around the world, because of the concerns and risks created by the project in the beginning and the privacy and protection of personal data.
Frequently Asked Questions
The two companies announced the new amendment to the project in a press conference the day before yesterday, in conjunction with the emergence of a list of common questions targeting consumers, on the official blog of "Google" and the newsroom on the official website of "Apple", where the two companies tried to explain the basics of the project, and the amendment that It was decided upon, how its tools work, whether people can turn it off, where data is stored, and technical modifications that will be made to the project to better support the privacy issue.
reaction
On April 10, Apple and Google announced that they had decided to do a joint project that would open the Android operating systems from Google and iOS from each other to work in a unified manner to carry out a mission. One is to build a system that uses the bluetooth technology on mobile phones, to track and detect those infected with the Corona virus in real time, alert the healthy to their presence, as a way to enhance social separation, and provide a safe environment for billions of people who are not infected yet, but are held in homes, and must be returned To act as quickly.
In response, hundreds of civil societies and organizations, and behind them hundreds of millions of users around the world, have moved to express their concerns about the project’s risk to privacy and the protection of personal data.
The wave of anxiety continued to increase and ended with the issuance of a statement signed by 110 civil institutions around the world, calling on governments and companies, led by "Google" and "Apple", to implement rules to harmonize what these institutions called "digital surveillance" on the one hand, and "rights" Personality »for users of phones and the Internet on the other hand, and these rules included that all digital surveillance measures be taken in accordance with the law, that they are necessary to combat the virus, that they are“ de-identified and located ”, and that they do not indicate the identity of the person, and only show his health status in terms of infection with the virus.
Undo and adjustments
The announcement came the day before yesterday by «Google» and «Apple», to embody a clear response to those concerns, as they emphasized changing the way the system was built and functioning, to be an expression of “issuing alerts” to users about the risks of “Corona”, and not “following their communications” in search of More data help fight the epidemic. The two companies said that the new terminology is simply a more accurate description of the project, and the shift here is not just an effort to change the “brand” or provide a “cosmetic” solution to the project, but it reflects a long way in maintaining the privacy of users, and abandoning a term such as “tracking”, can It has ominous implications for monitoring and breaching privacy, and this change reflects the two companies ’awareness of the importance of the general awareness of the project by the public users of phones operating systems" Android "and" iOS "together.
In their joint statement, the two companies expressed their full conviction that the user’s confidence in the system is of the utmost importance, as it is the fundamental basis for achieving the goal behind its operation, and therefore they want users to understand that their devices will not be used as tools to track their locations, or their data and reveal their privacy, but use them in Achieve greater effort, benefiting public health and combating the epidemic.
A similar crisis
The head of the Creative Strategies Consulting and Research Corporation, Tim Pagarin, said that Google and Apple are trying to avoid a crisis similar to the one they were exposed to, along with Amazon, several months ago, when it was revealed that the smart microphones they produce are By eavesdropping on their users, and transferring part of the conversations they do to R&D and technical support personnel, this almost causes a total breakdown in sales of those products.
Pagarin added that it seems more difficult for Google, which is often criticized for its business model, which relies on user data collected through the search engine, maps and other services to allow advertisers to target specific audiences with their messages.