Apple, Google disable location tracking in contact tracking applications

New Delhi : Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google on Monday announced that they will be banning the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Last month, both the companies had announced that they will be releasing a system that will notify the user if they are in close contact of a coronavirus infected person.

Both companies said that privacy and preventing governments from using the system to compile data on citizens was a primary goal. According to them the system uses Bluetooth and does not use GPS data.

Apple and Google on Monday said they will not allow use of GPS data along with the contact tracing systems. That decision will require public health authorities who want to use GPS location data to rely on unstable workarounds to detect encounters using Bluetooth sensors.