NearForm’s technical director, Colm Harte, told the Future Human audience how the Covid Tracker Ireland app came about.
With the full scale of the Covid-19 pandemic unfolding in Ireland in March, NearForm’s Colm Harte said that the Waterford company was tasked by the HSE with coming up with a contact-tracing app prototype in just five days.
As modern smartphones were not designed with contact-tracing in mind, the development team had to speak with Google and Apple to find ways that would allow for a Bluetooth-based tracing app to work on their devices, while still maintaining user privacy.
“There had been a lot of concerns in the media around, will this be effective? Will it work? And how is it going to manage my privacy?” Harte said at Future Human 2020.
>> READ MORE
Words by Colm Gorey
