TCN

Regarding communication from Android devices - BLE connections may be difficult, but as I understand it, BLE broadcasting is a workable alternative. I'm by no means an expert, and would refer to the TCN Coalition's current explanation of their approach to cross-platform device communication: https://github.com/TCNCoalition/TCN/blob/37add39f7ddb91fade9...

For those interested, the DP-3T papers can be found on their GitHub (https://github.com/DP-3T/documents). Apple has also published a preliminary specification of their protocol (https://www.apple.com/covid19/contacttracing/) if you'd like to compare. I'd like to mention the TCN Protocol here (https://github.com/TCNCoalition/TCN), another very similar specification. I bring it up because the readme goes into quite a bit of (easily understandable!) detail regarding the trust assumptions of such a protocol and associated rationale. Ultimately I think Apple and Google are right to omit record upload and authentication concerns from the base protocol. The low level implementation should be as interoperable and generalized as possible in order to facilitate immediate uptake and maximum reusability. Higher level concerns such as who to trust and

> like contact tracing APIs, however well-intentioned they may be I share many of the concerns you've expressed, but worrying about the contract tracing API that was recently put forward is (hopefully) unwarranted. A faithful implementation of the joint spec published by Apple and Google would preserve your anonymity until and unless you published your secret keys. Moreover, the overall design is cryptographically sound (unless I missed something recently?) and appears to be decentralized (at least in principle) so in theory you won't have to trust the behavior of any binary blobs unless you choose to do so. For more insight into the design (and security) of such systems, you might take a look at the TCN protocol (https://github.com/TCNCoalition/TCN) or the DP-3T protocol (https://github.com/DP-3T/documents).

This article makes good points about the challenges involved in encouraging widespread application adoption in the face of recent mistrust of tech companies. It will likely require strong and clear messaging from authorities -- backed up by experts and the facts -- to persuade large enough percentages of national populations to adopt contact tracing apps for them to be effective. From what I've seen and read so far, I like the sound of the approach that Covid Watch[1] is taking. It's backed by reputable institutions, is open source (alleviating potential security and trust concerns from software experts), and does include healthcare agencies in the verification loop when cases are reported. Although some technologists might argue for fully decentralized solutions, I'd argue that ensuring that a healthcare agency is in-the-loop is importan

Indeed, TFA appears to link to one or more protocol specifications [0],[1]. However, it is not clear if these are proper/true Scotsman protocol specifications. [0] https://github.com/DP-3T/documents [1] https://github.com/TCNCoalition/TCN