Columbia Removes Contact Tracing Feature from Official App

Columbia has dropped the contact tracing feature from its official app used to inform country’s residents about developments on coronavirus pandemic. The country says main reason behind the move is technical hitches in the contact tracing feature.

Government officials told reporters that they will be engaging tech firms Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Alphabet Inc’s. (GOOGL) Google to help them come up with a reliable and more stable contact tracing feature as soon as possible.

World Health Organization (WHO) recommends on contact tracing activities to involve identifying, isolating people who tests positive or those who have been exposed to reduce chances of them spreading the virus further.

Economies globally are arguing it’s best to try and keep economies open in best ways possible as the world waits for a vaccine to be developed. This has caused many countries to rely on smartphone technology to educate users on the deadly virus and alert them once they have come into close contacts with infected people or places deemed as hotspots for the virus.

Many counties which tapped into using apps for contact tracing without involving services of Apple and Google seems to be retracting from course.

In the beginning of the week, the team in charge of the contact tracing app in Australia informed Senators the app was experiencing some technical difficulties and the surest way to remedy the situation was to incorporate Apple-Google technology in the app.

Thereafter, Australian senators gave the software engineers green light to adapt the Apple-Google technology into their systems.

One factor which makes the Apple-Google Bluetooth stand out, is the fact that it does not need critical users’ personal data and it doesn’t reveal users’ GPS location data to the government. The app is said to be performing relatively smooth in comparison to others.

Since its roll out by the Colombian government, CoronApp has being downloaded by 4.3 million users by May 2. The app contains multiple features including features to report symptoms and view where cases are located on a map.

 

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