In April, Apple announced that it was working with Google in order to develop a technology framework. This framework technology will help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus. The application will work with user privacy and security central to the design. The app is called COVID-19, and these are the ways in which it worked.
What Is Apple’s “Find My” Technology?
In short, Apple’s Find My feature started with Find my Phone/iPad/iPod. This helped the users to retrieve their stolen or misplaced apple devices even when it is not connected to the Bluetooth or the internet. Later on, the Find My technology expanded, and the Apple users were able to track their friends and family members who have an iPhone as well.
Apple’s ‘Find My’ Technology Recycled For COVID-19
It’s truly impressive how fast apple can develop an entirely new layer of technology for securely tracking COVID-19 exposure notifications. They released this just weeks after the pandemic burst onto the world stage. Or at least that’s what we thought until we realised it wasn’t a new technology.
Apple’s “Find My” feature which was designed to locate lost or stolen Apple products now works as a COVID-19 exposure tracker. These days, every other major player in the consumer technology sector is focused on finding new ways to collect more data on their users. This data can be used to track and profile them to boost the value of micro-targeted, crowd behaviour manipulation campaigns. Instead of doing the same as its competitors, Apple developed a new privacy-centric system that, by design, refused to collect and store any data that could be used to influence, exploit, or surveil end-users.
“Find My” COVID-19 Exposures
COVID began to grow into the world and became a major problem to the world, and posed a significant threat to its users. Apple realized something that would and is very helpful. It realised that it could repurpose the technology it had already perfected for its “Find My” service in 2019. It could be used to deliver what it initially called a “Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing” system earlier this year.
However, a huge problem still remained. Who would be so generous to develop a technology which would solely be managed by Apple? In an attempt to make the technology available to all the users, Apple entered an arrangement with Google to make this technology available to Android users.
When the deal with Google was finalised, Apple was quick to rename its “Privacy-Preserving Contact Tracing” platform to “Exposure Notification,”
What Does This Mean In Regards To The Data Collection?
This in short means that not only that Android users will benefit from the “contact tracing” system. They would also be anonymously contributing valuable, private data that could help everyone else too. It was renewed in acknowledgement of the fact that its “Find My” system was not actually a “contact tracing” system. That is because it didn’t offer government agencies the actual names and contact information of anyone involved with reported exposure to COVID-19. Instead, it only delivered a simple warning to end-users involved with potential exposure to the virus.
