Britain’s National Health Service is now working with Apple Inc. and Google LLC in creating technology to track citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was announced today.

Speaking at a news conference, U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the use of a contact tracing app could help to reduce the number of infections and the country could come out of lockdown sooner.

“If you become unwell with the symptoms of coronavirus, you can securely tell this new NHS app, and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users that you’ve been in significant contact with over the past few days, even before you had symptoms so that they know and can act accordingly,” said Hancock.

If a person does come down with symptoms of the virus, a yellow alert will then be sent to anyone with whom they’ve come into contact of late. If the sick person tests positive for COVID-19, the users will receive a red alert and may need to go into quarantine. No personal details will be given, only the fact that the user of the app has been in close contact with an infected person.

The technology arm of the NHS, the NHSX, has said that for this to work, at least 60% of the country will need to download the app. But people are concerned about their privacy. The government has stated that the NHS won’t keep the data longer than is necessary and people will not be forced to use it.

“All data will be handled according to the highest ethical and security standards, and would only be used for NHS care and research,” said Hancock.

Last Friday, Apple Inc. and Google LLC announced that they were teaming up to create such an app for government and that it would use Bluetooth technology to track people’s phones. Both companies said they would release updates for iOS and Android, but these would “opt-in” tracking services. As in the U.K., users cannot be forced to download the app. The technology should be ready in May.

Critics have said such technology is a “global mass surveillance tool,” and they’re concerned that the “opt-in” service will be built into the operating system. Users won’t actually download an app that can later be deleted.

Besides privacy issues, for such technology to work scientists have said that a large part of the population needs to be on board. It might be hard to convince people to use a tracking app, since many citizens will be concerned about their privacy.

“If such a tool exists to trace close contacts of most Americans, what are the chances that they will not be used for law enforcement, by intelligence agencies, or hacked?” said Farzad Mostashari, former national coordinator for health information technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Photo: Gwydion M. Williams/Flickr