New coronavirus contact tracing app trial for England ‘to launch on Thursday’
A second version of the Government’s beleaguered app will reportedly be trialled on the Isle of Wight once again.
A new coronavirus contact tracing app will be trialled in England on Thursday, according to reports.
The app is intended to support the NHS Test and Trace effort by keeping a log of others who come into close contact but the plans have been marred by constant delays and privacy concerns.
An initial version tested on the Isle of Wight was ditched by the Government in June over accuracy issues, weeks after Health Secretary Matt Hancock first suggested it would be available in mid-May.
The Government has since moved on to technology designed by Apple and Google – already used in several countries across the world – which handles data in a more privacy-friendly manner and does not suffer the same type of accuracy error.
According to the BBC, the Isle of Wight will be part of the trial once again, as well as one other area in England and a volunteer group.
“We need the app to help stop transmission by tracing close-proximity contacts as quickly and as comprehensively as possible, capturing those contacts we don’t know or don’t remember meeting,” Professor Christophe Fraser, a scientific adviser to the Department of Health from Oxford University, told the broadcaster.
“The app should enable us to return to more normal daily activities with the reassurance that our contacts can be rapidly and anonymously notified if we get infected.”
The Apple/Google approach works by carrying out the contact matching process on a user’s smartphone itself, making it more secure and harder for any potential hackers to access and de-anonymise any data for nefarious means.
Their system also bars authorities from using the technology to collect any location data from users.
