Google and Apple are adding some key privacy boosts to their upcoming coronavirus-tracking tool, and say they'll shut it down once the pandemic is over

• Google and Apple's COVID-19 contact tracing technology is getting improved ahead of launch, with some notable improvements to protecting privacy.
• The tool, which will roll out to developers in beta next week, will allow users to see when they have come within close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. It will work across both iOS and Android devices.
• As well as improvements to privacy, the companies will allow health authorities to track contact cases with greater detail, including proximity and length of exposure time.
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Work is underway between Apple and Google to push out the first version of their COVID-19 tracing technology, which will be used to alert people if they've been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

The first version of that tech will be available for developers next week, and the partnering tech companies have just announced some changes that will make the tool both more secure and more accurate.

They've also promised to shut the tracker down once the pandemic is over.

One of the big new changes is to encrypt the metadata that gets shared via Bluetooth. This information could feasibly be used to identify a device, so encrypting it will make it far more difficult for anyone to do so.

The way identifiers work also is being changed. It was initially announced that phones would produce a fixed identifying key from which other random daily keys would be derived. Apple and Google say that instead the phone will now produce and hold an independent key every day, so all identifying information is constantly changing.

Apple and Google are relying on registered public health authorities to build apps that use their application programming interface (API), and so they're also improving the fidelity of information these authorities can take from their respective apps.

One such change is that they'll be able to tell you many days have passed since the last "exposure event," should you come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.

The tool will also now offer information about the power level of the Bluetooth signal being exchanged between two phones. The companies say that when combined with Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) this will let apps more accurately estimate the distance between two phones when contact was made.

Both companies said that the API will also be able to share the amount of time an exposure lasted, starting at a minimum of 5 minutes and moving up to a maximum of 30 minutes. Health authorities will be able to use both of these changes to determine thresholds for an "exposure event."

Apple and Google also announced that they intend to shut the tracking tool down once the pandemic is over, and will do so on a region-by-region basis. However, the companies did not comment on at what point it would choose to do so, or what a "region" might look like.

The updates will qualm certain privacy concerns about the technology, but there are still some lingering issues. For example, it is still possible that apps using the API could ask users to share other information, such as GPS location data.

For the first major public rollout, set to happen mid-May, users will be required to download an app from a verified health authority to use the technology. But the companies plan to eventually embed the technology into the Android and iOS operating systems, too.

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