Contact tracing

So the UK is finally going to switch to the Apple-Google model for its contact-tracing app. Although they didn't tell Apple this: even though Downing Street¹ said the government had

worked closely with Apple and Google

Apple commented

it is difficult to understand what these claims are as they haven't spoken to us.

Matt Hancock² also said

we've agreed to join forces with Google and Apple, to bring the best bits of both systems together

to which Apple commented

we don't know what they mean by this hybrid model. They haven't spoken to us about it.

It's difficult to tell whether the UK government are lying, or whether they no just longer know what is real or not: do they think they can get away with pretending they've agreed things with Apple when they haven't, or are they now living in a delusional world where they have agreed things with Apple? I don't know which is more worrying. I suppose when your entire politics is based on the denial of truth, you are liable to forget what is true yourself and wander off into an imaginary world – look at Trump, for instance.

This app is the one that was going to be deployed at the end of May, and is now due 'in the autumn' (they didn't say the autumn of which year).

Well, I suppose we should be grateful: when Google – a company whose entire business model is built on acquiring personal data – say your app is too invasive of privacy, it is.

But well, if these apps do any good then another few months of delay is killing another few thousand people. Just small people though, not people who count like Johnson, Cummings and the rest of their disgusting group.