Final Thoughts

Digging into the technical details, the solution appears to be similar in concept to how Apple’s Find My feature keeps your device location private, which will also likely factor into protecting the privacy of Apple’s upcoming AirTags. The bottom line is that neither Apple nor Google will be maintaining a master database of which phones have been in contact with each other.

While the system isn’t without its problems, such as flagging false positives in crowded areas, and possibly even in adjacent apartments, it still seems likely to offer more positive benefits overall, although it will likely supplement the more traditional methods of contact tracing — asking people where they’ve been and who they’ve come into contact with — rather than replacing it outright.