UK abandons contact tracing app; switches to Apple and Google model

Britain on Thursday said it would switch to Apple and Google technology for its test-and-trace app, ditching its current system in a U-turn for the troubled programme.

The government has been forced to abandon a centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app after spending three months and millions of pounds on technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work.

In an embarrassing U-turn, Matt Hancock said the NHS would switch to an alternative designed by the US tech companies Apple andGoogle, which is months away from being ready.

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The test-and-trace programme is seen as a key measure to reopen the country, but has also been dogged by criticism after the nationwide roll-out of a National Health Service (NHS)-developed smartphone app slipped from the last month towards the end of the year.

At the Downing Street briefing, the health secretary said the government would not “put a date” on when the new app may be launched, although officials conceded it was likely to be in the autumn or winter.

The idea behind the NHS app was that it could trace anybody that a person with coronavirus symptoms came into close contact with by using theBluetoothconnectivity on a standard smartphone, and notify them to self-isolate.

Ministers had insisted on using a centralised version of the untested technology in which anonymised data from people who reported feeling ill was held in an NHS database to enable better tracing and data analysis. This version was not supported byAppleand Google.

Apple and Google have been in talks with Britain about the technology, which uses a decentralised model. The firms have barred authorities using their technology from collecting GPS location data or requiring users to enter personal data.

Apple and Google's model has attracted the interest of over 20 countries, though some of the restrictions they have imposed have frustrated governments as the world's top two smartphone makers undercut the technology's usefulness by prioritising user privacy.