The Contact Tracing Protocol is Truly Safe
Thanks Faisal, for explaining this in plain language. I looked into this too, and came up with much the same appreciation for it.
A significant aspect of the Apple/Google contact tracing protocol is that it is not a rehash of existing ad tracking software. I doesn’t have a master key that can unlock data. And it doesn’t know anything about the people or the location of the encounter.
The protocol simply records a 16-byte value that contains the date and time of a close encounter with someone. The “someone” that you encountered (an Uber driver, a nearby shopper, a store clerk) is identified with an anonymous number that changes every 10 minutes. Nobody knows, or can guess, what that identifier number is.
I was an initial skeptic too, but since I know how to program software I took the time to put it through the paces.
This new contact tracing protocol is trustworthy. I’ll bet my life on it.
