Apple and Google are set to launch their privacy-preserving contact tracing API for third-party app developers today. But as you would expect, a couple of governments are deciding not to use Apple and Google’s solution, and instead build their own alternatives.

The UK government is the latest to do so, with the National Health Service (NHS) announcing this week that it will be releasing its own contact tracing app for COVID-19. Other countries like Australia have already released their own solution, too.

But there are some major problems with these alternatives. Unlike Apple and Google’s solution, both the UK and Australia government’s contact tracing apps use a centralized architecture, meaning all the user data will be stored somewhere on a server. That instantly raises various privacy concerns, and although the NHS is pledging to protect user data and follow the law, it still does not rule out the chances of the data being misused.

Apple and Google’s solution, on the other hand, is built on a decentralized architecture, and it completely rules out possibilities of using user data for any other reasons.

The NHS said on a blog post that the app will provide advice to users when they come in contact with someone who has become symptomatic.  It will also apparently allow users to provide the NHS with extra information about themselves to help “identify hotspots and trends” in a future release of the app.

There is also another major drawback for not using Apple and Google’s solution: phones with the NHS app will have to be woken up every time the device detects nearby devices with the app to carry out the necessary computation for contact tracing. Apple and Google’s solution can run in the background because of the special treatment it will get on iOS and Android, and thus using less battery power.

Tagged with Contact-Tracing, COVID-19