Security News > 2020 > May > Apple-Google COVID-19 virus contact-tracing API to bar location-tracking access
Apple and Google will ban location-tracking by apps using their new coronavirus contract-tracing API, newly renamed ExposureNotification.
In a set of guidelines [PDF] for the API released today, the companies said that developers will not be able to access or even seek permission to access location data using the app.
That's a welcome change as Android currently requires location access to be enabled to make always-on Bluetooth of the sort required by contact-tracing apps to work, even though GPS data is not used.
The new guidelines also state that only public health authorities will be able to use the API, and that only one app per country will be permitted into app stores.
Apple and Google will continue to release updates and development kits before releasing a public version of the API to consumers later this month.
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