France asks Apple to adjust Bluetooth operation on iOS for corona app

Members of the French government have asked Apple to adapt the functioning of bluetooth on iOS for its own contact tracing app Stop Covid. Apple does not seem to intend to and will release its own api in May.

The French app should be released on May 11, but does not seem to work well on iOS, Bloomberg reports. Presumably the app cannot work in the background. Apple does not seem to want to give in to the French demand and presumably wants France to use the api of Apple and Google.

Although the api of Apple and Google, and the protocol of the French app both work with contact tracing based on bluetooth, the operation differs. The Stop Covid app uses the Robert protocol developed by France’s Inria in conjunction with Germany’s Fraunhofer. Documentation of it is on GitHub.

The main difference between the two systems is that Google and Apple’s api anonymize data, while Robert’s pseudonymizes data. Individual users can therefore be traced, but not with their own name. Users get these pseudonyms from a central server, which therefore knows which IDs belong to which users. Then, if a user is found to be infected with the coronavirus, the device uploads IDs of users that the infected person has encountered in recent times.

The api from Google and Apple enables apps that locally create their own key and based on that generate IDs that are valid for 15 minutes. In the event of an infection, the device uploads its own IDs and not those of devices encountered by the user.

It is still unknown whether France will continue development of the app if Apple continues to block the use of Bluetooth in the background. Without iPhones, it is difficult for countries where iOS has a large market share to get the app on enough phones. If not enough people have installed the app, it will limit its functionality and usefulness.