Quote:
|
That means that unless people have the NHS app running in the foreground and their phones awake most of the time, the fundamental principle underpinning the entire system – that phones detect each other – won’t work.
|
What's annoying is anyone who knows the basics of how iOS and Android operate where stating this from the start. Ministers seem to think sheer willpower or words at a press conference can overcome technical limitations. It doesn't matter how much we collectively believe in the Government, it won't work in the background.
Apple and Google knew this too which is why they've preempted the issue by providing their own APIs that do what's required without allowing anyone to use it to track you or to store data about users in a centralised database. Understandably either company is warm to the idea of a Government exemption to the security measures their devices take against applications on their platforms.
This app is shaping up to be another disaster in the making and one which they'll claim, several weeks from now, couldn't be foreseen and they'll blame Apple and Google for not giving them the access they need. Much like the encryption debate political journalists won't understand the issue at a technical level and will present it in those terms.
I don't know why they continue to push down this path. If they want it work they need to adopt the APIs that work.
Anyway let's all come back to this in a few weeks when the debate moves to how could the Government possibly know the app had this flaw.