Apple and Google Address Privacy Issues in Contact Tracing App

Apple and Google have announced a number of updates in relation to the privacy concerns attached to their new contact tracing app.

What Exactly is “Exposure Notification” Technology, And Why is it Important?

The two companies are adding new measures and have given an update about some details of their joint contact tracing system, now being referred to as “exposure notification” technology, for lack of a better description. Some of the changes are modifications to the API itself, to provide stronger privacy protections for individual users, as privacy concerns were raised at the initial announcement of the app.

Instead of a “tracing key,” which was permanently attached to a device, the cryptography mechanism is being changed entirely to randomly generated keys, which also limits attackers’ ability to access the device directly. The two companies originally believed they needed the old system for efficiency, but now announced they eliminated it altogether, once they realized they didn’t need it to ensure everything was working.

Any metadata associated with Bluetooth signals will also be encrypted from now on – leaving reverse identification attempts with even less options. Google and Apple also said that this is intended as a fixed length service, with the option to disable the feature at any time, albeit by regional authorities.

Additionally, any apps using the API will be provided exposure time in 5 minute intervals, with a maximum total time of 30 minutes, making information even harder to link to a specific individual, providing even more privacy protection.

Google and Apple have also announced that they will be providing signal strength information via Bluetooth radio power output data to more accurately measure the distance between two devices.

The two companies confirmed that the plan is to start distributing next week the beta seed version of the OS update, with support for any iOS hardware released in the last four years, and on the Android side – the expectancy is that it will cover roughly 2 billion devices globally.