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May 8, 2020 10:00 am

Coronavirus: NHS Reveals Source Code Behind Contact-Tracing App

The NHS has released the source code behind its coronavirus contact-tracing app. The BBC reports: The NHS Covid-19 app is designed to use people's smartphones to keep track of when they come close to each other and for how long, by sending wireless Bluetooth signals. More than 40,000 people have installed the smartphone software so far. NHSX, the health service's digital innovation unit, has opted for a centralized system to power the app, so the contact-matching process happens on a UK-based computer server rather than individuals' smartphones. And there has been a lot of speculation this decision would mean the app was doomed to work badly on iPhones. Apple limits the extent to which third-party apps can use Bluetooth when they are off-screen and running in the background, although it has promised to relax this rule for contact-tracing apps that use a decentralised system it is co-developing with Google. But NHSX had said it had come up with its own solution. Pen Test Partners installed the app on a handful of "jailbroken" iPhones - altered to allow them to monitor activity normally hidden from users. [...] There will be further scrutiny of the app now the source code has been published to Github, allowing others to see how the workarounds were achieved.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/j6V5iaoJRGE/coronavirus-nhs-reveals-source-code-behind-contact-tracing-app

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