The CDC suggested that a decentralized system such as COVID-19 contact tracing app of Apple and Google was “preferred”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a document indicating the minimum and preferred criteria for digital contact tracing apps.
As reported by CNBC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that a centralized system was acceptable yet a decentralized system was preferred.
And because the CDC preferred to have a decentralized system, then the COVID-19 tracing app of Apple and Google could be a preferred choice.
Representatives from Apple and Google said that they released the beta version for developers last Wednesday and will reveal sample applications using their system early next week. Also, Apple and Google stated that it’s up to the public health authorities on what system to make and how to implement the system.
Such contact tracing apps — such as Covidsafe in Australia and TraceTogether in Singapore — use signals from the users’ smartphones in order to trace who an infected COVID-19 patient had been in contact with. In that way, those people can be tested or isolated.
Centralized System vs Decentralized System
A centralized System feeds infection data to public health authorities in order to manually communicate to those who have infected with the coronavirus disease, while the decentralized system didn’t require personal information such as email addresses and phone numbers in order to secure privacy while remaining “anonymous”.
As per the report, both Google and Apple were among the companies that supported the decentralized system.
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