It doesn't use data for contact tracing - it is based on a unique anonymous bluetooth LE signal as far as i can see. if your unique number corresponds with someone who tests positive you get a notification. As far as I can see, no personal data or GPS stats are taken or used.
The main difference with this app is that all the data is stored on your phone and your phone does the searching. Example. I am in close contact for more than 15 mins with person A & Person B. My phone stores for 14 days their unique bluetooth address (not the real bluetooth address btw). Their phones store mine too. My phone reaches out to the central database to see if any numbers are a match. Person A gets COVID. Person A's bluetooth address is uploaded to the central server. No personal data or even location of Person A, just their unique number. On the next search my phone matches the stored number on my phone with the one on the database and I am alerted. EDIT: good news for checking on the database too. From the BBC: "To encourage adoption in England and Wales, the major mobile networks have agreed not to deduct data used by the app from subscribers' monthly allowances."
Really? What phone do you have. I leave bluetooth on all day on my iPhone 11 and it is constantly talking to my Apple Watch, headset, presence detection tags around the house and even car kit when I go out. I still am on 60-70% battery at the end of the day? You know this is 2020 Tom and there is Bluetooth LE out
The nearest I get to Bluetooth is knowing that he was a Viking. My phone is 'mobile', in name, but so basic that it can do little else beyond making and taking calls and texts. I do not know if I am in the minority, or majority, but if this Phone App will rely on having a suitably modern device, then there is likely to be a large part of the population that will remain unnoticed by technology. In short, some people may find out that they have been in close proximity to some other people with Covid-19 symptoms, and may take action as a result, but the expectation that this will be a 'game changer' is very dependent on old duffers like me spending money in order to move with the times and update my phone beyond something that wouldn't look out of place in a museum.
100%. The theory is excellent - if at least 60-65% of the population had it, it would really work. Problem is as you say you need an Android or an iPhone and then you have to convince people to download it. As I said I am Mr Security in all things IT and I can see that this app is as safe as it will get. Others won't, not because it isn't safe, but to understand how safe it is you need to understand the inner workings of IT security. If you aren't in to IT you may not get it or trust it. ....But those same people will happily chat to Alexa all day or buy a cheap 'wifi controlled light' that talks to servers in China all day *****Yes I do have an Alexa, but on a siloed off subnet that doesn't have access to my internal network. All my IOT devices that need internet are on the same subnet so can talk to each other and 'get out' to the net, but cannot talk to or see my personal devices. All my automation products (switches, lights, plugs etc are internal only and do not use the cloud or dodgy apps that talk to China all day). Is it safe? As safe as it can be with an Amazon echo in the mix. Sometimes you have to roll with it.
Last year, I asked Siri who was going to win the Derby. Was quite impressed when she came straight back with current odds. Only time I’ve ever used it I think
Never completely understood the intricacies of betting but my brother-in-law explained it thus: If you put £10 on the Saints to win the EPL at 250:1, you'll lose £10.
Yes, that sums it up nicely. Another way of looking at it is to remember that a famous gambler once said, “life is essentially 11/8 against.” Basically, never bet on Saints - you’ll lose. However, in April 2003 I put £10 on a Mick Channon runner in a handicap at Newmarket, and it led first to last, paying for my trip to Cardiff the following month
I asked Siri what the score was going to be and if there was a good blog on the build up to the game. She’s brilliant. One answer to both questions: “It’s got four nil written all over it”
It’s got a lot of ground to make up on cancer and heart disease then (around 9.6 million and 17 million respectively).
Are those annual figures? Wow if so, and i get your point. How many suicides each year also - its c. 1.5m pa.
I agree that these other diseases and issues are creating greater number of deaths, sadly. What this virus is doing though is stopping what we know as normality and is wrecking economies (or the way the world is dealing with it is).