England and Wales Covid 19 NHS contract tracing app has been blocked following an update. This update breaks the terms and agreements set out by Google and Apple.
The update required that people who tested positive for Covid 19 to upload their venue check ins. The check in is required when sitting in a restaurant or visiting a hospitality venue. The upload would then be used to help notify others. This update was due to go live yesterday, in line with the ease of restrictions. However both Apply and Google have refused the upgrade.
Within the terms that all health authorities signed up for in order to use the NHS app, they agreed not to collect any location date via the software. As a result, Apple and Google’s privacy centric contact tracing tech. Scotland has avoided this glitch as they use a separate app ‘Check in Scotland’.
How is it the new NHS Covid 19 app any different?
Visitors to coffee shops or restaurants are required to ‘check in’ via the Covid 19 app via a QR square. However, this data has never been accesible to anyone.
It has only come into use if a particular space is identified as a Covid hotspot. Each phone regularly checks the database, notifying the user without sharing the information with others. Before shops opened on the 12th, it had been the intention to automate this process.
This would mean users would opt in to upload their logs if they tested positive. The app would then notify others who had visited the same place to isolate or take a lateral flow test. The Department of Health described it as a “privacy protecting” app.
Despite the process being voluntary, with users told to opt in, it is still a clear breach of the terms agreed when the Government swapped to Apple and Googles app. They swapped in June 2020 due to the original API having to many cases of contagion.
Apple and Google Exposure Notifications System FAQ states that its apps must not “share location data from users device”. If Apple and Google allow for the Government to breach this, where will it stop? They were asked not to reveal why the update failed to go ahead on the 12th.
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