When gyms, pub gardens, and non-essential shops reopened today, the COVID-19 app was supposed to have a new feature that would log every place that a user checked into. If they later tested positive, the app would inform other people who’d been to that venue. But this collection of location data is prohibited by Apple and Google, who developed the decentralized API model on which the app is based. The update has therefore been blocked from Google Play and the App Store. A spokeswoman for the UK’s Department of Health told the BBC that the new feature had merely been “delayed” and that the app’s core functionality has not been impacted. But privacy advocates have slammed the location-tracking plan. Ray Walsh, a digital privacy expert at ProPrivacy, said it appeared the government was trying to trick the public into believing their data would be handled appropriately: The government had initially intended to develop a homegrown contact-tracing app, but switched to Google and Apple’s more privacy-focused model last June. Walsh said it was vital that the app continued to use a decentralized approach that doesn’t constantly track people’s whereabouts: Greetings Humanoids! Did you know we have a newsletter all about AI? You can subscribe to it right here.
