Thread: Coronavirus (OLD)
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Old 07-05-2020, 12:52   #3035
Stuart
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Re: Coronavirus
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmistoffelees
They were..

When he was asked, the guy from the NHS (Professor Chris Witty IIRC) said that the government app would only store an identifier on the device. If the user reported symptoms later, this would then upload the device id and other relevant data to an NHS server, thus allowing the NHS to contact other potential victims, and track the infection.

A few slight problems with this approach though:
  1. We don't know will have access to the data. Cummings seems to be involved, so I feel that whoever has access, there is a good chance it will be used for things other than what we have been told. The GDPR likely includes a whole load of conditions that mean they won't provide protection for us. I haven't read the GDPR, but both previous Data Protection Acts included a whole load of exclusions that prevented them being used against the Government.
  2. iOS (in particular, don't know about Android) imposes heavy restrictions on what can be done with Bluetooth by any app running in the background.
  3. It's an app. The tracing will only be done by people who both download the app and leave it running. Neither are guaranteed. I'm terrible at remembering to leave things running. Probably comes from working with computers with nowhere near enough resources to leave everything running. As I understand it, using the API, a lot of the actual donkey work (looking for other devices, and sending notifications) is done by the OS, so will happen whether the app is running or not.
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