May 18, 2020

Tech-assisted COVID-19 tracking is having some issues

Posted May 18, 2020 4:10 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Harnessing today's technology to the task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be more complicated than it first appeared.

The first U.S. state-adopted smartphone apps for tracing the contacts of COVID-19 patients are running into technical glitches and so far have only been downloaded by a tiny fraction of residents.

A second wave of tech-assisted pandemic surveillance tools backed by tech giants Apple and Google have other problems.

All technology-based approaches for tracking the disease face major privacy issues, say groups like the ACLU, which has a new white paper on the danger of building a new surveillance state in the name of public health.