Day: 5 May 2020

The Telegraph warns that people using the NHS's new coronavirus-tracing app may not be able to travel to other countries. Failing to use the system developed by Apple and Google, which is being used by Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Estonia, among other countries, could mean Britons have to remain in quarantine for 14 days on arrival in another country. The paper posts out that this could result in the Covid equivalent of a hard border between Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland because the latter is using the Apple-Google app. The system developed by Apple and Google relies on a decentralised system with users' phones independently notifying them if they've been in contact with others who've tested positive, whereas the NHS app transmits users' information to a centralised, Government-owned database that other countries won't have access to – at least, not without signing an agreement with the UK authorities that enables them to get around EU-wide GDPR rules. But the Telegraph doesn't explain why anyone wanting to travel abroad couldn't simply download the Apple-Google app. Kieren McCarthy has written a scathing article in the Register today saying the NHS app won't work on iPhones unless the phones are awake and the app is open. He also flags up that the app may be a "battery hog", which means people aren't ...