Security News > 2020 > April > So how do the coronavirus smartphone tracking apps actually work and should you download one to help?

In an effort to fend off the coronavirus while getting economies restarted, the world has hit on the same idea: a smartphone app that alerts people if they have been close to someone who has the virus.

Not all these apps work in the same way however and with experts saying that to be effective they would have to be used by at least 60 per cent of the population, it is critical that whatever approach is taken is acceptable to a vast majority of the population.

This is tried-and-tested technology used by a huge array of smartphone apps to give people everything from directions to local listings, and so it is quick, cheap and easy to do.

There have been countless reports of it producing false positives: people listed as being red despite having no symptoms and having being stuck at home for weeks, or people who leave their house to go to work with a green symbol that then, inexplicably, turns red in the middle of the day, causing no end of problems.

Another advantage to publishing the technical details is that anyone will be able to produce an app and Apple and Google will then only be acting as gate-keepers for the apps themselves, checking that the apps don't do anything malicious.

News URL

https://go.theregister.co.uk/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/coronavirus_phone_app/