The U.K. Government’s Coronavirus Contact-Tracing App: What We Know

(Bloomberg) --

The U.K. is due to start rolling out a mobile phone contact-tracing app to help lift the coronavirus lockdown. The plan is for enough people to install it so it will be possible to isolate new cases of Covid quickly while the rest of the country starts the process of returning to normal.

What Does It Do?

Using a low-power Bluetooth signal from the phone, the app creates a record each time it gets close to another phone that has the app installed. If the user develops coronavirus symptoms, they press a button on the app, which then uploads its record of contacts to a central server. Those are then decrypted by the central server and messages are sent to each contact via the app.

Who Is Making It?

NHSX, the digital arm of the National Health Service, said it is working with Apple and Google, which are supporting contact-tracing apps.

When Is It Launching?

The app is due to begin trials on the Isle of Wight, off England's south coast, this week. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said it will be ready to launch nationally in the middle of May.

How Private Is It?

NHSX argues the app is highly anonymous. It doesn't take a name or unique identifier from the user's phone, and the only personal information it asks for is the first half of the user's postal code, which would usually cover around 20,000 people. “The app doesn't know who the user is,” Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX told Parliament's Human Rights Committee on Monday.

What Will It Tell Users Who Have Had A Contact?

“The notifications don't say who it was that you saw,” said Gould. “It sets out only that you've had a proximity event. It doesn't say with whom or in what place or on what date.”

What Are The Privacy Concerns?

The big one is around the central server. When someone's contact list is updated, it theoretically could reveal social networks of phones, and contacts between individuals they would prefer to keep private. But NHSX argues the data will be anonymous.

Will The App Track Users' Movements?

Not at present. The app might be developed in future, and Gould said users could have the option to provide more information. But that raises the risk of a person who is happy to share their location accidentally compromising the privacy of a user who isn't.

Will The Data Be Available to Law Enforcement?

“The data will only be used for health, public health and research purposes,” Gould said.

Will The Data Be Deleted?

Gould was ambiguous answering this question to the Human Rights Committee. “At the end of the crisis all the data will either be deleted or fully anonymized so that it can be used for research purposes,” he said.