Huawei releases its own corona contact tracing API

Huawei has updated its Huawei Mobile Services, the alternative to Google Play Services, with a ‘Contact Shield’ API. The API uses Bluetooth low energy to enable anonymized contact tracing for corona research.

Huawei has updated HMS Core, the foundation for its Huawei Mobile Services, to version 4.1.0.301, noting that the Contact Shield API has been added to “add fundamental properties to minimize the spread of covid-19.” Huawei has not yet provided details for consumers about the API, but the company reported to XDA-Developers that it publishes more information about Contact Shield on its developer site.

This documentation shows that the API uses Bluetooth low energy to detect nearby devices and exchange anonymized data about the contact. When asked if the API would also work in conjunction with the Exposure Notification API from Apple and Google, Huawei replied that Contact Shield “can interact with industry-wide solutions for the Covid-19 pandemic.”

To ensure privacy, users can choose whether to enable Contact Shield and whether uploading the anonymized IDs and receiving data during diagnoses is allowed. Furthermore, the company promises not to track or store any personal information such as location and not to keep the IDs for more than two weeks. Only developers who have permission from governments and from Huawei itself would be able to use the api and historical data would be deleted after removal of corona apps, is the further promise.

Google and Apple announced in April that they were working on an API for corona tracking methods in Android and iOS. At the end of May, the iOS version and the Google Play Services appeared with this api. Based on this API, corona apps can trace contacts of infected users. Due to trade barriers that the US has put in place against China, Huawei cannot piggyback on this development.