The NHS contact tracing app for COVID-19 has been blocked for breaking the terms of an agreement made with Apple and Google.
An update to the app – which allows users to check-in to locations such as pubs and hairdressers in order to be notified about possible exposure to COVID-19 – on Monday (12.04.21) has seen the app banned on the iOS and Google Play app stores for breaching the terms of a privacy agreement.
The plan had been to ask users to upload logs of venue check-ins if they tested positive for the virus so that they could be used to warn others, but both Apple and Google had explicitly banned such a function from the launch of the app last year.
Under the terms that all health authorities signed up to in order to use Apple and Google's privacy-centric contact-tracing tech, they had to agree not to collect any location data via the software.
As a result, Apple and Google refused to make the update available for download from their app stores, and have instead kept the old version live.
Users of the app – named NHS COVID-19 – have long been able to scan a QR code when entering a shop, restaurant, or other venue, but this data has neve been accessible to others.
Instead, it has only come into use if local authorities have identified a location as being a virus hotspot by other means, and flagged the fact to a central database.
Changes to the app were due to be made ahead of shops and restaurants reopening in England on Monday, but were made “opt-in”, meaning people could choose not to use the new features.
However, the update was deemed a clear breach of the terms that health chiefs had agreed to when they switched to adopting Apple and Google's contact tracing API (application programming interface) in June 2020.
