9 Best Contact Tracing Apps

Contact tracing apps. It's a category of apps that we never would have thought of three months ago, and yet now not only are public health organizations around the world racing to develop their own, but two the biggest rivals in technology, Apple and Google, have formed an unprecedented partnership to build special features into the iPhone and Android operating systems that stand to help empower many of these contact tracing apps to do their thing.
At a basic level, the purpose of a contact tracing app is to simply keep track of who you've come into contact with. Since the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) can be so easily spread by people who don't even know they have it ("asymptomatic" transmission), health authorities have come to realize that if they want to stop the spread, they need to be able to figure out who else may have come into a contact with a person whenever that person tests positive.
However, not all contact tracing apps are created equal, and there have been many different approaches to the problem. Some use Bluetooth, while others use GPS location data, and then of course there are those that plug into the ultra-private Apple-Google Exposure Notification system, and those that refuse to do so. Of course, while each approach has its pros and cons, since this is unexplored territory, the jury is still out on how well each one will work.
Keep in mind that since Apple is only allowing contact tracing apps from recognized government and health organizations, most of what you're going to find on the App Store will be regional in nature. In fact, you may not even have a choice as to which one you can use, but it's still interesting to see the different approaches that are being taken with the contact tracing apps that are out and available now. Read on for 9 of the most interesting contact tracing apps that are coming out now.
TraceTogether (Singapore)
One of the first contact tracing apps to be developed as the pandemic spread throughout east Asia was by the government of Singapore, which came up with TraceTogether, a Bluetooth-based contact tracing app that arrived long before Apple and Google formed their partnership.
TraceTogether is notable for not only being an early entry, but also for the remarkably privacy-conscious approach it took to its design — an approach that some other countries have been resisting in their hunger to get as much data as possible in fighting the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The government of Singapore also chose to release the app as open source in the hopes that other countries would be able to benefit from its head start.
Instead of collecting personal information and location data, TraceTogether used only phone numbers and randomized personal IDs, stored in a secure registry. Phones running the app then used Bluetooth to ping other nearby phones so that they could record IDs of everybody a person who had been in contact with. However this information remains stored only on the user's own phone, unless they're later diagnosed with COVID-19, at which point they're asked to send their logs to the Singaporean government so that they can be analyzed to determine who that person has come into contact with, and notify them to either self-isolate or get tested.
The catch? Like most apps that you run on your iPhone, TraceTogether actually has to be actively running, with your screen unlocked, in order to collect contact tracing information.
COVIDSafe (Australia)
Earlier this month, Australia began rolling out its COVIDSafe app, which it modelled after Singapore's TraceTogether, choosing to go its own way rather than join up with Apple's Exposure Notification APIs.
Like TraceTogether, COVIDSafe uses Bluetooth to handshake between two devices that are running the app, saving details on the encounter such as how long the two devices were in proximity and the relative signal strength (which can be used to loosely determine distance). This data is sent to a government server, where officials use it when a person tests positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, technology experts and privacy advocates in Australia have raised concerns about the lack of transparency in the app and a lack of any response to the privacy concerns that it creates.
However, officials in Australia have already run into problems due to the fact that, like any other app, it really only "works best" (or, frankly, works at all), when he iPhone is unlocked and the app is open int he foreground. As a result, Australia's Digital Technology Agency (DTA) which is overseeing the project, has said that it's considering switching to Apple's approach.
StopCOVID (France)
While countries like Australia have been quietly doing the best they can with their own apps, in developing its StopCOVID app, France has attempted to pillory Apple as being the bad guy for not being willing to help out by loosing the restrictions on the iPhone that would allow its own app to work properly.
According to French officials, Apple is "not helping out" with its own contact tracing efforts, despite the fact that Apple and Google have already released an Exposure Notification API that France simply doesn't want to use.
This is because StopCOVID goes beyond simply recording contact tracing data on each user's individual iPhone. France wants to be able to create a central government database that will allow them to keep track of every iPhone user in the country and who they have come into contact with. However, France is annoyed because the security and privacy restrictions that Apple has baked into iOS means that StopCOVID only works when the iPhone is unlocked and the app is actively running, meaning that the French government won't be able to collect nearly as much data as it would like.
NHS Contact Tracing (U.K.)
The U.K. was another country that infamously chose to go its own way, again with the idea that it would be creating its own centralized government database, but the government wanted to go one notch further and actually keep track of users' GPS locations as well.
The country's National Health Service (NHS) suggested that it had figured out a way to make its app work "sufficiently well" on the iPhone without users needing to keep it active and on-screen, thanks to cybersecurity experts from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the U.K. equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
The U.K. approach, however, has raised concerns among privacy advocates, and as The Register has pointed out, could even violate the country's own laws that prohibit tracking and recording all of the movements of its own citizens. Due to technical challenges and the furor from politicians and rights groups, The Guardian reports that the NHS has now been considering ditching its original plan and using the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API instead.
Corona Warn App (Germany)
The case of Germany's Corona Warn App is one of the more interesting ones, as back in April the country was originally going to back a centralised EU standard called Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracking (PEPP-PT), but when Apple refused to budge on loosening iPhone restrictions to accommodate it, the more pragmatic German government realized it needed to change course, rather than digging in its heels like France did.
Germany did so very quickly, as even Chancellor Angela Merkel recognized that Germany citizens would have a "much higher level of acceptance" for the decentralized approach being put forth by Apple and Google.
The result is that the Corona Warn App will be one of the first major contact tracing apps to take advantage of the Exposure Notification APIs, since Germany didn't waste any time deploying an app that wasn't going to provide the results it wanted. As German developers explain on the projects Github page, its being released an open-source software so that other countries can benefit from the work that Germany has already done, and will basically follow the Apple approach, which means relying on the data that's being collected by Apple and Google's API, and using it solely to notify other users of potential exposure to a person confirmed to have COVID-19 so that they can also be tested themselves.
Stopp Corona (Austria)
While Germany saw the light very early on in aligning itself with the Apple-Google initiative, Austria didn't need any convincing at all. It was actually one of the first European nations to get on board with Apple's approach with its Stopp Corona app.
Since it uses Apple's Exposure Notification, this means that it's Bluetooth based and decentralized, so no data is actually stored outside of the user's iPhone, and the entire thing is voluntary at every stage of the process, even to the point of a COVID-19 positive person choosing to share their diagnosis.
Immuni (Italy)
Italy was one fo the first western countries to be heavily hit by COVID-19, so naturally it has a unique perspective on the problem and wants to make sure it goes with a solution that works. While like many other countries, Italy originally looked to a centralized model, after much debate and resistance from privacy advocates, Italy relented and chose to embrace the Apple-Google API for its Immuni app, noting that it will be "voluntary, anonymous, and with respect for privacy."
Aarogya Setu (India)
India's Aarogya Setu is probably one of the more privacy-invasive contact tracing apps to be released by a democratic country, not only because it makes wide use of location data, but also because the country is making it mandatory for millions of people to use. In fact, it's the only democratic nation in the world that's doing this.
Naturally, Aarogya Setu isn't using Apple's APIs, but the population of India combined with the threat of reprisals for those who aren't installing it has actually caused it to hit 50 million downloads within the first two weeks of its release.
Although officially, downloading the app is "voluntary," government employees are required to use, at least if they want to keep their jobs, and many private employers have followed suit. In fact, even landlords are mandating the use of it by tenants who don't want to be evicted, and at least one city is reportedly fining anybody who fails to install the app on their iPhone. In fact, it's a classic example of an app that's going against everything that Apple prohibits contact tracing apps from doing with its own APIs, including monitoring citizens in COVID-19 containment zones to enforce mandatory quarantines.
Chinese Health Code System (China)
While you may be surprised that India has taken such a draconian approach to contact tracing apps, it probably won't come as a big shock that the Chinese government's Chinese Health Code System app is even worse.
In fact, there's almost no information available to the public about how the Chinese app works behind the scenes, except for the fact that it makes extensive use of location data, mines as much information as it can form people and their phones, and of course it isn't voluntary — at least not if you want to be able to move around.
The Chinese app works by assigning colour codes to users that they must present when moving around from place to place, much like an ID card, and QR codes that must be scanned when entering and exiting locations. Chinese citizens provide their full identity information to the app, and then complete a questionnaire on travel history and current symptoms, after which they're assigned a colour code indicating their risk level and the places they're allowed to go.
It's unclear how these codes are assigned, but if they attempt to scan into a store or business where they're not permitted due to their assigned profile, they're denied entry, and the same is also true if they don't have a code to present because they're not using the app. Meanwhile, at each and every interaction, the user's location, the QR codes they've recently scanned, and other information are sent to servers run by Chinese authorities.