Amidst the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, tech giants like Google have started coming with smart ideas that aim in controlling/preventing the further spread of the virus. The company has built a new system that will allow people to be aware of who is infected around, possibly as a warning or to seek immediate isolation. While this system will see an eventual global rollout, it seems like Huawei and China have been cut off from it.
Let’s briefly look into the contact-tracing system first. The idea is relatively simple that users will get notifications once they are near a person infected by the COVID-19 virus. Detection and notification occur through the Bluetooth system, which will run on either side. This will also prompt a person to self isolate, preventing the virus to spread further to people around you.
The concept behind it is that Apple and Google will both drop core updates in upcoming software patches to bring this feature. Through this, one apart from being notified can exercise a reasonable amount of caution and isolate themselves. However, the only issue with this kind of system is that it would need a wide scale adoption. For example, 60 percent of people would need to have this system installed for it to work as efficiently as desired.
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Furthermore, the system is also built with various privacy concerns in mind from both Google and Apple, while also adhering to rules set by medical health agencies. Unfortunately, the issue now lies with its implementation. While Google said that about 80 percent of the Android phones outside of China can run this system, the Southeast Asian country and Huawei might be skipped over for this feature.
Huawei has about 600 million Android users in China alone and is one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world. However, the trade ban back in 2019 led the company to lose official Google mobile services support for its smartphones. Thus, as of right now, there is no sure way to fix or bring a solution to the problem and Android phones in China may have to wait get this technology.
According to a Huawei official, “it is encouraging to see technology playing a key role in addressing this global issue—we believe technology should be open and available to everyone. Only then can we use technology to move the world forward and make it a better place.” On the other hand, China as a whole seems to have no interest in this international privacy first contact-tracing system. The region already has various phone tracking solutions of their own and will likely employ localized structures regardless.
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(Via)
