Security News > 2020 > April > Apple and Google Team Up on Virus 'Contact Tracing' by Smartphone
Google and Apple unveiled a joint initiative Friday to develop a coronavirus smartphone "Contact tracing" tool that could potentially alert people when they have crossed paths with an infected person.
"All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world's most pressing problems," the companies said in a joint statement.
The move comes with governments around the world studying or implementing measures to use smartphone location technology to identify people with the virus and keep them from infecting others, even as the efforts raise privacy and civil liberties concerns.
"Contact tracing can help slow the spread of COVID-19 and can be done without compromising user privacy," Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in a tweet.
Neither Apple nor Google can guarantee what ultimately becomes of mobility data gathered for the coronavirus fighting effort, warned analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy.