The Ministry of Technological Innovation and Digitization has published on Github the source code of Immuni, the contact tracing app
Part of Immuni’s source code has been published on Github (a platform used by developers to discover, share and improve the software they make) and is viewable by everyone. The promise made in recent weeks by the Minister of Innovation Technology and Digitization has been fulfilled: part of the source code of Immuni has been made public and is open source. Any expert can view it to find any flaws or bugs that could compromise its use.
Bending Spoons, the Milanese software house that won the call launched by the Ministry to develop an app for contact tracing, has released part of the code for both iOS and Android versions, a sign that development is going hand in hand. The material published concerns mainly the graphical interface, but allows to understand a very important assumption: Immuni will rely on APIs made by Google and Apple and that are available on our smartphones since a week, thanks to an update on the software side made by the two companies. What does this mean? That Immuni will work on most smartphones without too many problems and that it will not collect personal data that will identify the infected people.
Immuni, how the app will work
The operation of Immuni is now quite clear: it is an app for contact tracing that uses Bluetooth Low Energy smartphone to exchange identification codes of people. Confirmed what we already knew: there will be no use of GPS or Wi-Fi to exchange information between smartphones.
Immuni will be one of the first applications in the world to use the new API released by Google and Apple last week to implement contact tracing on Android and iOS. This will allow for widespread and faster deployment of the app. But how will Immuni work in simple words? All the app does is collect the ID codes of the smartphones that people come into contact with. In order to do this, however, it is necessary that both on your own device and on that of the person you meet, Bluetooth is active and so is the app. In case a person you have met tests positive for Covid-19 and enters this information in the app, you will automatically receive a notification on your smartphone that warns you of a possible contact at risk.
As far as privacy is concerned, the question of who will manage the identification codes collected from smartphones has been resolved. The servers will be managed in Italy by Sogei, Società Generale d’Informatica S.p.A., a company managed directly by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. In the development of Immuni should be involved also PagoPA, the company that manages digital payments to the public administration
When Immuni arrives
The release of part of the source code makes us hope that Immuni will arrive soon. On this issue also the Vice-Minister of Health Sileri expressed his opinion, who in an intervention to the radio program 24 Mattino on Radio 24 assured that the application will be available between the end of May and the beginning of June.
The most likely date is the first ten days of June. Immuni, in fact, will have to pass a testing phase and then the acceptance by Google and Apple to be published on Google Play Store and App Store.
Immuni, controversy about the activation of the app: what is true
The political controversy on such an important issue could not be missed. In addition to all the debates about privacy and possible use of the data collected by the app (which will be eliminated by December 31, 2020, as assured by the Government), in recent hours has also mounted a controversy about the presence in the Settings of iOS and Android smartphones of a function to activate the app-Covid 19 automatically.
To understand what happened, we need to do some clarity. Google and Apple released APIs last week that make it easier to use contact tracing apps on your device. The Cupertino company specifically released a new version of iOS (number 13.5), while Google directly updated Google Play Services. That’s why if in an Android smartphone you go into Settings and press Google, we will see in the page that will open the new service “Notifications of exposure to COVID-19”. This, however, does not mean that the feature is already active, but only that your smartphone is ready for Immuni to work at its best. In fact, clicking on the item will open a new section in which it is highlighted that “To activate the notifications of exposure to COVID-19, open an available app”, which in Italy is not yet present, but it will be soon.
The same is true for iOS. After the update to version 13.5, the item “Collect COVID-19 exposure logs” appeared in Settings > Privacy > Health. At the moment it is not possible to enable it and it will be only when Immuni is available. In the note available under the entry it states that “When the option is enabled, iPhone is exchanging random identifiers with other devices via Bluetooth. In this way, an app is enabled to send you notifications in case of possible exposure to COVID-19.”