Tracing Is Not the Same as Tracking
The Google/Apple contact tracing protocol knows nothing about you or your location.
Thanks Owen, for a nice explanation of the protocol.
Just to underscore your point about identity and location — 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.
The ACLU’s white paper was written on April 8, 2020, before Google and Apple announced their work on this or made any part of the specification public. Furthermore, the ACLU is thinking in terms of tracking, not tracing — two very different things.
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.
