Apple, Google tie up to trace contacts

Business Bureau

Hyderabad  12.04.2020

With contact tracing becoming the best bet to contain the spread of Covid-19, two tech giants have come together to fight the virus.

Apple and Google have joined hands in a first-of-its-kind initiative – which is to enable contact tracing through Bluetooth. The collaboration aims to help government and public health agencies reduce the spread of coronavirus while keeping the privacy and security of users intact. Next month, the two tech giants will release APIs (application programming interfaces) that work both on Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These apps will be available via app stores. The companies are planning to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into the underlying platforms. This would be a robust solution and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities. (

Apple, Google tie up to trace contacts

The data collected via this solution will only be used for contact tracing by authorities for Covid-19 pandemic management. It would not collect personally identifiable information or user location data. “The list of people that you contact never leaves the phone and in turn a broadcast beacon key is generated on the cloud which is then matched with positive patient – whose identity is also not revealed. If the key matches with a positive patient then a notification are sent to the user on what to do next,” the companies said in a blogpost. Contact tracing is most viable solution to contain the spread of coronavirus and many countries are working on developing technology solutions around this.