52581
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

NHS Test and Trace App Update Blocked For Breaking Privacy Rules

by Michael Curzon
12 April 2021 3:36 PM

A software update to the NHS Test and Trace app – which was scheduled to coincide with the partial reopening of pubs and restaurants – has been blocked by Apple and Google because it breaks rules about the collection of location data. Sky News has the story.

As coronavirus lockdown measures were eased across the UK from midnight, the NHS Covid app was meant to include a new feature that would have allowed users – once they had tested positive – to upload the list of all venues they had checked in to using a QR code.

But this form of location tracking has been explicitly prohibited on privacy grounds by Apple and Google, who collaborated together to design the exposure notification system used on all iOS and Android devices.

Public health authorities around the world that signed up to the exposure notification system have agreed to never use it to collect location data, but this was what Apple and Google considered would have happened under the update to the app.

ITPro reports that the app “must comply with the regulations due to it being based on the decentralised API model developed by Apple and Google, which stores the information collected through the app on users’ devices and only shares a limited amount of data with epidemiologists monitoring the pandemic”. Before settling with the API model, the Government considered setting up a centralised tracing app, but the idea received criticism from digital rights campaigners over the suggestion that this would hold on to personal health data for up to two decades.

A spokesperson for the Department for Health and Social Care said that the update has merely been “delayed” by this block.

The deployment of the [enhanced check-in] functionality of the NHS Covid app to enable users to upload their venue history has been delayed.

This does not impact the functionality of the app and we remain in discussions with our partners to provide beneficial updates to the app which protect the public.

As venues begin to open up we encourage everyone who can to use the enhanced venue check-in process, which includes advising users to book a test if they attend venues where multiple people have tested positive.

All customers at pubs, restaurants and cafes must provide contact details (either written or via the NHS Test and Trace app) on entry.

The Sky News report is worth reading in full.

Tags: Test and Trace

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Dutch Students “Made Little or No Progress While Learning From Home”, Study Concludes

Next Post

50% Of People Vaccinated In Wales

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About the Davos Elites’ Prolific Use of Prostitutes, Clarkson’s Fightback and the Government’s Bizarre Plan to Ban Discouraging Teens From Becoming Trans

by Will Jones
24 January 2023
1

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

MIT Expert on Drug Safety Calls for Immediate Withdrawal of mRNA Vaccines: “Clearly the Most Failing Medical Product in History, Causing Unprecedented Harm”

30 January 2023
by Will Jones

Scientists Struggle to Understand Why Antarctica Hasn’t Warmed for Over 70 Years Despite Rise in CO2

29 January 2023
by Chris Morrison

News Round-Up

31 January 2023
by Will Jones

Misinformation and Hate Speech Have Been Rife in the Past Three Years, But From Defenders of the Covid Consensus, Not Dissenters

30 January 2023
by Toby Young

The JCVI is Right to Withdraw Boosters for Under-50s, But It’s Still Spinning the Stats

31 January 2023
by Amanuensis

News Round-Up

37

The JCVI is Right to Withdraw Boosters for Under-50s, But It’s Still Spinning the Stats

28

Why I’m in Favour of Equal Treatment Under the Law

24

MIT Expert on Drug Safety Calls for Immediate Withdrawal of mRNA Vaccines: “Clearly the Most Failing Medical Product in History, Causing Unprecedented Harm”

24

Jonathan Sumption Is Wrong About Excess Deaths

61

Elderly Vaccination Saved Lives in East Asia

31 January 2023
by Noah Carl
Mandatory Credit: Photo by JUSTIN LANE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10421665ds)
Sixteen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg addresses world leaders at the start of the 2019 Climate Action Summit which is being held in advance of the General Debate of the General Assembly of the United Nations at United Nations Headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 23 September 2019. World Leaders have been invited to speak at the event, which was organized by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, for the purpose of proposing plans for addressing global climate change. The General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly begins on 24 September.
United Nations 2019 Climate Action Summit, New York, USA - 23 Sep 2019

Elite Billionaire Foundations Fund Wave of Green Climate Propaganda Flooding into British Schools

31 January 2023
by Chris Morrison

The JCVI is Right to Withdraw Boosters for Under-50s, But It’s Still Spinning the Stats

31 January 2023
by Amanuensis

MIT Expert on Drug Safety Calls for Immediate Withdrawal of mRNA Vaccines: “Clearly the Most Failing Medical Product in History, Causing Unprecedented Harm”

30 January 2023
by Will Jones

In Praise of Boris Johnson’s Stance on Ukraine

28 January 2023
by Noah Carl

POSTS BY DATE

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment