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This is how the activation of the new system should work on iPhones.
Photo: Apple
On Tuesday evening, Apple and Google introduced a new system that is intended to simplify the recording and tracking of contacts with people who have tested positive for Covid-19.
The health authorities should make it easier to use the technology jointly developed by the two companies, which uses smartphones and their Bluetooth short-range radio to detect such encounters.
So far, according to the two companies, 20 countries have used their technology to develop apps for contact tracing.
In Germany, for example, the Corona warning app based on this system has now been downloaded 18 million times.
However, the technology that is supposed to help contain the corona pandemic is still a long way from global coverage.
In the United States, for example, only six states have released such apps.
The new system called Exposure Notifications Express is now intended to accelerate and simplify the spread of the technology by relieving the authorities of the burden of developing their own app for tracking contacts via smartphone.
It should be made easier for the authorities
Instead, Apple and Google are offering interested health authorities the option of transferring all information necessary for a system for tracking Covid-19 contacts to the two companies via "an easy-to-use user interface".
The information that can be passed on to the two companies in this way should include, for example, contact details of the respective health authorities, their logo and criteria for triggering a contact notice.
Above all, however, the web addresses of the servers must also be transmitted as part of this data transmission, via which the respective health authority transmits, for example, the so-called daily keys, which contain anonymized information about encounters with infected people.
The comparison of these keys with the information stored on the mobile phone about contacts with other users of the system takes place only locally on the device itself and not on the servers.
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According to Google, this is how Exposure Notifications Express is activated on Android smartphones
Photo: Google
The user is shown a message on the screen of their iPhone or Android cell phone, informing them that a contact tracking system is available in their region.
On iPhones, an update to iOS 13.7 is required, which is to be released on Tuesday evening.
There had already been indications that the new technology would come with this update.
The new system will be available on Android smartphones later this month and requires Android 6.0.
The data protection promise
On iPhones, it is sufficient to click on the hint to be guided through a process that activates contact tracking without an app.
On Android smartphones you are instructed in a similar way to download and activate an app automatically generated by Google from the information from the respective health authority.
Google and Apple explicitly point out that the system neither records location data nor forwards personal data of users to Apple or Google.
In addition, every user is free to activate the new system on their smartphone, not to activate it or to deactivate it again after a period of use.
The technology also does not have an obligation to report a positive diagnosis of Covid-19.
In addition, the companies promise to deactivate the system if it is no longer needed in a region.
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