Comment by crypt1d | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crypt1d | Hacker News Reader

I've spent the last 3 weeks with my team building exactly this - contact tracing apps for both android and ios that use bluetooth tech[1]. This will probably require us to redo the app completely to fit into their API plans, but I'm glad they are, in a way, acknowledging our idea.

The troubling thing is, bluetooth-based contact tracing is in no way easy. Different android phones handle background bluetooth scanning / advertising differently and some tend to require additional config changes - such as disabling battery saving features - to even make it work. And iOS bluetooth advertising in background is just bad. Since u can't add custom UUIDs to the advertisement package, just advertising data is often not enough, so u have to connect too, which creates a range of other problems. I suspect they will release OS upgrades to solve some of these issues, but not all devices will be fixable (eg, older Android devices). This, combined with the fact that they will start rolling out this feature in May, makes me think it will not help us much for the latest wave of COVID-19 infections. Might come in handy for the next epidemic, though.

[1] - https://github.com/cryptekio/corridorapp-android

Do you think that GPS coordinates will be exposable with the API so that there can be public tracing maps online? Obviously a big privacy issue where the actual bluetooth ID and the person's identity have to be fully anonymized but if GPS coordinates of contact points can be exposed publicly, there can be good public tracing maps that can show where contact events are happening and in what numbers so that people can avoid certain areas (and on the other end where other areas are safe where there's no contact). This can publicly also be used to display R0 counts in different zip codes and geographic areas.

I dont see any mention of it in the current context of bluetooth device proximity tracing. It is possible, however, that apps that will build up on this API will also fetch location history separately from already established mechanisms on each OS.

As a matter of fact I see this as a very likely scenario as this is precisely what South Korea has already done.[1]

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE-cA4UK07c

I think the real interesting private sector utility will come from implementations of the contact-tracing map instead of just the bluetooth app (which there will likely be "official" ones or ones being worked on directly by Google/Apple themselves).

Just to clarify, the Apple/Google proposal discussed here does not require geo location (and I’d assume that you don’t have to give it access to location data).

Thanks for that. One path to greater longevity is to explore the idea of what else you could do with it besides contact tracing for disease that users might find useful. For example, what if users with a common interest had the ability to identify themselves to each other but not those who don't share that interest? If it's useful for something else besides coronavirus mitigation, you'll have the rare opportunity to reach almost everyone at once.

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