Google and Apple team up to support coronavirus contact tracing

Who gave you the coronavirus, and how many people did you give it to?

As a pandemic sweeps the globe, charting the course of the coronavirus is vital public health work. On Friday, Google and Apple announced a combined effort to facilitate contact tracing — that is, the work of identifying who came in contact with an infected individual and was possibly exposed to the virus. 

As one might expect, the tech giants are taking a tech-focused approachTheir plan is twofold, and involves the introduction of a cross-platform API and a "Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform."

"Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design," reads the announcement. Read more...