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13-08-2020, 12:16 AM
61

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Track and Trace (Phase II)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53753678

The software will be based on Apple and Google's privacy-centric method of one smartphone detecting another.

Engineers are still trying to reduce how often the Bluetooth-based tech wrongly flags people as being within 2m (6.6ft) of each other. Officials are concerned about people going into quarantine as a consequence.

The Isle of Wight will be involved again, along with one other area and a volunteer group. The government intends to launch the experiment without much fanfare, because it is still not clear when a formal national rollout will occur.

The idea behind the app is to use people's phones to log when they have been close to another person for so long, that there is a high risk of contagion. If one user is later diagnosed with the disease, the other person can be alerted to the fact before they begin exhibiting symptoms.
Baroness Dido Harding - who heads up the wider Test and Trace programme - cancelled an earlier trial on the Isle of Wight in June. This was because an app based on an alternative system spearheaded by NHSX - the health service's digital innovation unit - had to deal with restrictions Apple imposes on how Bluetooth is used by third-party apps.

As a result, it only detected 4% of iPhones in cases where the app had gone to sleep because the two handsets involved had not been in recent active use. This prompted a switch to the Apple-Google solution, which does not have this problem.

But at the time, Baroness Harding said the US tech giant's alternative had a different issue. She said it could not measure distance well enough to be trusted to direct people to self-isolate for a fortnight.

This has not prevented other places - including Northern Ireland - launching apps based on the technology.

But ongoing tests indicate that England's new app is still worse at determining distance than the original NHS Covid-19 product. The team behind England's app hopes it can still improve the accuracy rate to a high enough - but not perfect - level by the end of the year.
Millions of pounds spent by "Incompetent" Harding on successive systems which are dismal failures .....
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13-08-2020, 07:46 AM
62

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

If you go to a pub or restaurant, you have to pay with a card, they know who you are anyway. I don't understand why you have to give details too.
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13-08-2020, 08:11 AM
63

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Coz one person may pay for a whole group of people who, in turn will mingle with other folks?
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13-08-2020, 08:13 AM
64

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Originally Posted by TessA ->
If you go to a pub or restaurant, you have to pay with a card, they know who you are anyway. I don't understand why you have to give details too.
Dutch Folks could operate this system BTW
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13-08-2020, 08:43 AM
65

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Originally Posted by spitfire ->
Coz one person may pay for a whole group of people who, in turn will mingle with other folks?
But, they could contact the others in their group, unless they had a row about who's paying and weren't speaking...
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13-08-2020, 11:51 AM
66

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

AFAIK, any contract-tracing app will be independent of any other tracing mechanism, such as giving card or personal details in a restaurant:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...when-download/
How do contact tracing apps work?

A contact-tracing app is designed to let people know if they have been in close contact with someone who later reports positive for Covid-19.

It could pinpoint exactly who needs to be in quarantine and who doesn’t, making it key to easing up social distancing measures. The purpose of the contact-tracing app is to try and track down people and alert them of the need to self-isolate faster than traditional methods.

Users who download the app to their phone can opt-in to record details of their symptoms when they start to feel unwell. In some countries, they can enter official Covid-19 test results to confirm they have the virus.

The app keeps a trace of others who have been in close contact through Bluetooth signals that transmit an anonymous ID. These low energy Bluetooth signals perform a digital "handshake" when two users come into close contact, but keep that data anonymous.

If an individual later reports that they are positive for coronavirus, it will then ping a message to people who have been in close-contact with them in the last 28 days based on their anonymous IDs.

The app will recommend those people self-isolate in case they have contracted the disease. Those contacted won't know the identity of the person who may have passed on coronavirus.

If the person then takes a test and tests negative, they may be released from their self-isolation by a notification through the app.
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13-08-2020, 03:33 PM
67

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technolog...eporting-story

Latest:

It will be limited to residents in the Isle of Wight, the London Borough of Newham and NHS volunteer responders to begin with. The app will be available in Apple and Google's online stores, but users will need to enter a code to activate it.

The software will tell users to self-isolate for a fortnight if the app detects they have been close to someone else diagnosed with the virus.

The app has several other functions, including:

  • An alert system that informs users of the coronavirus risk level close to their home, with the area defined by the first part of their postcode
  • A QR barcode scanner, so users can check in when they visit a venue and be told if others there later tested positive
  • A symptom-checking tool, which allows users to book a free test and get the results via the app
  • A countdown function that comes into effect if they are told to self-isolate, so users can keep track of how long to stay at home

The developers acknowledge there are still issues with measuring the distance between handsets, meaning some people will be incorrectly logged as being at high risk.

Official social distancing guidance says that two people should not be within 2m (6.6ft) of each other for 15 minutes or more.

But when trying to detect this, lab tests indicate:

  • 31% of cases are missed when the handsets were within range
  • 45% of cases are incorrectly flagged when the two handsets were in fact further apart

However, if the boundary is set at 5m, the accuracy rates radically improve. Then the handsets detect each other in more than 99% of all cases, regardless of whether iPhones or Android devices were involved. This is not useful in practice, but indicates the flaw that caused the original NHS Covid-19 app to be cancelled has been solved. That product often failed to detect cases involving two iPhones because of restrictions imposed on third-party software by Apple.
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13-08-2020, 06:27 PM
68

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

The reason the track and trace apps are struggling is because Apple refuses to allow 3rd party app developers access to the raw bluetooth data because Apple says it is a privacy issue and they do not want 3rd party developers having access to users private information. If the raw data was available then the track and trace developers could work out the bluetooth distance issue but because they are not allowed, the developers are having to come up with other mathematical formulas which are not working because they are proving not reliable enough when working out the distances between two phones.
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13-08-2020, 06:32 PM
69

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Originally Posted by Dodge ->
The reason the track and trace apps are struggling is because Apple refuses to allow 3rd party app developers access to the raw bluetooth data because Apple says it is a privacy issue and they do not want 3rd party developers having access to users private information. If the raw data was available then the track and trace developers could work out the bluetooth distance issue but because they are not allowed, the developers are having to come up with other mathematical formulas which are not working because they are proving not reliable enough when working out the distances between two phones.
Indeed ..... this from the linked article:

Part of the problem at present is that Apple and Google refuse to share the raw Bluetooth signal data involved.

While the two show no signs of backing down, they will shortly release a new version of their tool that should improve matters.

This development has also been welcomed by those involved with Switzerland's SwissCovid app.

"While the updated Google/Apple exposure notification API [application programming interface] still aggregates and shuffles data for privacy reasons, it will expose more information needed by the app to compute exposure more precisely," explained Prof Mathias Payer from the EPFL university in Lausanne.
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14-08-2020, 11:31 AM
70

Re: Coronavirus: Test and Trace App.

Hi

Why are we changing when Boris says we already have a World Beating System already?
 
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