App that warns if someone with bug is nearby
A PHONE app which alerts people if they come too close to someone who has tested positive for coronavirus is being planned for nationwide release by ministers.
The contact tracking software is set to be launched either just before or just after the lockdown is lifted, Sky News reported last night.
It will operate on an opt-in basis so no one will be forced to use it.
NHS bosses hope it will attract more than 50 per cent of the population as large numbers will be needed for it to work effectively.
Key details have only recently been agreed by NHSX, the NHS England innovation unit leading the project.
The app will detect other phones in close vicinity using Bluetooth signals, then store a record of those contacts.
If someone tests positive for coronavirus, they can upload those contacts, who can then be alerted – after a suitable delay, to avoid accidentally identifying an individual – via the app.
This method means data is not sent to a central authority, potentially easing fears around privacy, which NHSX fears may slow adoption of the app.
NHSX plans to appoint an ethics board to oversee the project.
However, data protection campaigners questioned whether a board would be independent and has concerns about the app’s safeguards.
Last week, a group of “responsible technologists” published an open letter to NHSX and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care warning that ‘ location and contact tracking technology could be used as a means of social control’.
Sky News said this letter was published in response to early development of the app, which was originally intended to be used during the ‘containment’ phase of the pandemic.
One source who witnessed work on the app during this period described it as a ‘ hot mess’ run by ‘ a hodgepodge of suppliers and contractors’.
NHSX insiders argue this was a consequence of a team working at speed when the strategy in Downing Street was changing rapidly.
In order to reassure the privacy community, NHSX held an online meeting yesterday with some of the concerned groups.
One attendee told Sky News: ‘ We could be using tech to augment and improve human processes, rather than, or as well as, creating a shiny new app. That wasn’t something discussed on the call.’
Yet although attendees praised the openness to scrutiny, some were concerned that major questions were still not yet answered.
Development has been taken over by Pivotal, a subsidiary of US software giant VMware. The UK version works like TraceTogether, an app used in Singapore, which has helped the city-state suppress its outbreak.
‘Hodgepodge of suppliers’