Apple and Google partner to create interoperable platform for contact tracing

Apple and Google have announced a partnership to enable governments and health agencies to use Bluetooth for proximity-based contact tracing to help reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus while preserving user privacy and security. The effort is due to begin with the May release of APIs that will enable Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities to interoperate. The two companies will go on to build Bluetooth-based contact tracing into their underlying platforms. The platform is meant to ensure that individuals remain unidentified after sharing their data by assigning anonymous keys that cycle every 15 minutes and there will be no central list of phones that have been matched, whether contagious or not.

Source: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/04/apple-and-google-partner-on-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

Writer: Apple; Russell Brandom and Adi Robertson
Publication: Apple press release; The Verge