Apple And Google Are Building A Virus-tracking System. Health Officials Say It Will Be Practically Useless.

But Apple and Google have refused, arguing that letting the apps collect location data or loosening other smartphone rules would undermine people’s privacy. The companies are also concerned that easing the restrictions around apps’ Bluetooth use would drain phone battery life, which could irritate customers. That unbending stance has led some health authorities to abandon hopes of building a fully functioning contact-tracing app

But the tech giants’ resistance to letting public health officials access people’s data has a long precedent of keeping personal information out of the hands of governments. Apple and Google said in a statement that they have held hundreds of conversations with public health authorities around the world and made principled decisions to limit how the system is used to prevent invasions of privacy or data misuse.

Though the companies first debuted the effort by calling it a “contact tracing” system, company executives now say it is designed to do no such thing. They said they intend to fully release the system in the middle of this month.

“Public health authorities asked for our help because without our assistance, contact tracing apps that rely on Bluetooth may have technical challenges,” company officials wrote in an emailed statement. “Our effort does not aspire to digitize contact tracing or to replace the human element of that critical public health function.”

But Helen Nissenbaum, a professor of information science and director of the Digital Life Initiative at Cornell University, called Apple and Google’s use of privacy to defend their refusal to allow public health officials access to smartphone technology a “flamboyant smokescreen.” She said it was ironic that the two companies had for years tolerated the mass collection of people’s data but were now preventing its use for a purpose that is “critical to public health.”

“If it’s between Google and Apple having the data, I would far prefer my physician and the public health authorities to have the data about my health status,” she said. “At least they’re constrained by laws.”

The Apple-Google system uses the short-range Bluetooth antennas in people’s smartphones to log when two people come into contact for a short period of time, but not where that contact took place. An alert is sent if one of the people tests positive for a coronavirus infection, but that information is not shared with public health officials or contact-tracing teams.

That limitation has led some health authorities to attempt to build their own apps outside of the Apple-Google design. But developers around the world who’ve tried to build their own systems have run into functionality issues. For example, Apple restricts all apps not made by Apple from tracking Bluetooth in the “background” to avoid battery drain and privacy issues.

That means that a user must keep one of the apps built by health departments open on their phones for it to work — something most users would find incredibly inconvenient. Any time, for example, a user took a phone call, read an email or put their phone in their pocket, the app would not be running.

The tension over virus-tracking apps reflects a major power imbalance between the tech giants and state and local health officials, who argue that Apple and Google’s technical decisions have undermined their response to a global health emergency. It also highlights the tech giants’ ability to exert unfettered control over how billions of smartphones work.