BBC News - Coronavirus: NHS reveals source code behind contact-tracing app bbc.co.uk/news/technolog…
"Prof Christophe Fraser- an epidemiologist advising NHSX - said there are 2 main benefits to choosing a centralised system: :
(1) it made it possible to ask people to self-diagnose rather than wait for test results, because any mass attempt to abuse the process could be detected"
(1) it made it possible to ask people to self-diagnose rather than wait for test results, because any mass attempt to abuse the process could be detected"
"(2) the collected data could be used to fine-tune the system to deliver different kinds of alerts depending on the risk scores calculated"
Question 1/n: At what point in the process would a person get a test? Users are asked to self-report symptoms. So let's say someone downloads the app and reports symptoms of fever and cough, the classic 2 symptoms. When would they get a test?
Question 2/n: How long does it take to get a test, and then how long does it take to get the test result?
Question 3. Who updates the user's record on the app with the test result -- the user, or the NHS?
Question 4/n: Up to 1/3 of people who are infected with coronavirus do not have a fever, sometimes ever, or sometimes intermittently? (That is from the press conference today with Dominic Raab and the deputy chief medical officer)...
...Those people could download the app in good faith and not report symptoms, because they don't have fever. How does that affect the app's accuracy, if up to 1/3 of people who have coronavirus don't show the full symptoms and thus won't self-report?
Question 5/n: Do we know how many tests need to be conducted each week across the UK in order to detect people who are asymptomatic? (continued...)
...This matters because people who are asymptomatic could download the app and not self-report any symptoms because they don't have any -- but they will be infected and contagious.
Question 6/n: Is the NHSX app useful if it is not paired with testing? If it needs to be paired with testing, what does that look like (frequency, scale, targeted vs generalised)?
The UK test-trace-isolate programme vs that of South Korea: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
@privacyint assessment of the NHS app:
1. "no mechanism to opt-in or opt-out of third-party trackers which are included with the app"
privacyinternational.org/long-read/3752…
1. "no mechanism to opt-in or opt-out of third-party trackers which are included with the app"
privacyinternational.org/long-read/3752…
@privacyint assessment of the NHS app:
2. "It seems that the app would only work when it is operating on the foreground, particularly on iOS devices, making its efficacy questionable"
2. "It seems that the app would only work when it is operating on the foreground, particularly on iOS devices, making its efficacy questionable"
@privacyint assessment of the NHS app:
3. "The app is incompatible with a range of older Android devices, potentially putting the most vulnerable, such as the elderly or those on low incomes, at risk"
3. "The app is incompatible with a range of older Android devices, potentially putting the most vulnerable, such as the elderly or those on low incomes, at risk"
China’s Covid-19 QR code surveillance state
Phone-based system controls entry and exit to neighbourhoods and taxi cabs
ft.com/content/eee43c…
Phone-based system controls entry and exit to neighbourhoods and taxi cabs
ft.com/content/eee43c…
UK app: channel4.com/news/app-is-on…
Security behind the UK app: ncsc.gov.uk/blog-post/secu…
"The French Parliament has demanded a right to vote on the app to debate whether programs that send data on users’ locations and contacts to the government are a privacy violation. The vote may be scheduled for the week of May 25."
"When contact data is uploaded to the NHS systems it isn’t possible for technical reasons for this to later be deleted. And at the end of the coronavirus crisis it may be kept for research purposes."
wired.co.uk/article/nhs-co…
wired.co.uk/article/nhs-co…
"The UK’s centralised system won’t be able to work with the decentralised apps that are being created by Germany, Switzerland and many other countries across the world. It raises the possibility of people traveling with the UK app being quarantined at the start and end of trips."
@mikarv: “It looks like academics, civil society and parliament would rush to vocally support the UK app if the govt pivots to the decentralised approach that other countries’ epidemiologists + technologists promote, + place real safeguards into hard law.” theguardian.com/technology/202…
