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Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

vmware.github.io

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Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#11

Post by netshroud »

snops wrote: post #4

Very interesting how they made this work on iOS, given so many failed (before the Apple/Google protocol was released). A lot of the design documentation references the UK market, I wonder if VMWare were asked/volunteered to help with the NHSX app that tried to ignore the Apple/Google "blessed" approach. > Provides a number of approaches to workaround the ‘iOS detection in the background’ bug in iOS to a point where d…

There is a bit of evidence that it _doesn't_ work on iOS, at least not as well as advertised.

https://github.com/vmware/herald-for-ios/issues/15 https://github.com/AU-COVIDSafe/mobile-ios/issues/29#issueco... https://github.com/AU-COVIDSafe/mobile-ios/issues/29#issueco...

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#12

Post by hiharryhere »

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”.

It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances.

Someone needs to tell it straight. It doesn’t work, we should just use the platform provided apis and be done with it.

Edit: this is an excellent summary of what’s wrong with the Australian app:

https://github.com/AU-COVIDSafe/mobile-android/issues/30

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#13

Post by wut42 »

lloeki wrote: post #7
steve_taylor wrote: post #2

The market for this product is governments who stubbornly refuse to use the exposure notifications framework because they think they know better. It’s a pile of trash that drains the battery, particularly on older phones. https://github.com/AU-COVIDSafe/mobile-ios/issues?q=is%3Aiss...

After a first app failure (stopcovid19), France uses the ROBERT protocol in its second app TousAntiCOVID (which is just a rebrand+slight pivot into focused news); apparently the protocol is joint-developed between Fraunhofer (Germany) and INRIA (France). The irony is that Germany uses iOS contact tracing, so as I live near the border I miss detection of a high vector. Scratch that, I -would miss-, it I used the app,…

ROBERT was used in the first app too.

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#14

Post by amanzi »

hiharryhere wrote: post #12

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”. It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances. Someone n…

I was so pleased to see the NZ govt integrate the native ENF from iOS and Android into our Covid app. It took longer than I would have liked, and there were some misguided investigations into alternatives (like the Bluetooth "covid card" that would dangle around people's necks on lanyards) but it's a great result for us.

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#15

Post by justsee »

hiharryhere wrote: post #12

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”. It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances. Someone n…

I'm in awe of the effort Jim Mussared (https://twitter.com/jim_mussared), Vanessa Teague (https://twitter.com/VTeagueAus) and a few others have put into identifying serious issues with the COVIDSafe app (and making sensible, well-informed recommendations).

That ticket is incredibly damning of the Australian Government.

Highly-skilled technologists and cryptographers volunteer significant amounts of time in the hope critical digital infrastructure can be improved and everything is basically dismissed.

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#16

Post by merlinscholz »

hiharryhere wrote: post #12

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”. It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances. Someone n…

Sadly it's the exact same situation as with the German covid app. The limitations of what can be done without the iOS/Android APIs are too high to make the app useful, as can be seen in the official documentation: https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/blob/ma...

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#18

Post by arrrg »

merlinscholz wrote: post #16
hiharryhere wrote: post #12

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”. It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances. Someone n…

Sadly it's the exact same situation as with the German covid app. The limitations of what can be done without the iOS/Android APIs are too high to make the app useful, as can be seen in the official documentation: https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/blob/ma...

It’s not the exact same situation. It’s a completely different situation.

These apps need to use the OS APIs, otherwise there is no hope for them. The German app uses those APIs, the Australian one does not. While there are obviously trade-offs involved with the OS APIs, it's not hopeless like this clusterfuck.

Re: Herald – Bluetooth contact tracing protocol

#19

Post by [deleted] »

hiharryhere wrote: post #12

I used the Australian COVIDSafe ios app today which uses herald. The only way it can keep the app receiving Bluetooth while in the background is to request location permissions and show the blue ios bar at the top that says “COVIDSafe is using your location”. It’s a hack. Nobody seems to spell that out in the media coverage about it. Yes it works some of the time, but only under very specific circumstances. Someone n…

[deleted]
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