Apropos of @thesundaytimes article, a few thoughts: firstly, as I tweeted 2 days ago & in stark contrast to the #transparency around other tech/data intitiatives - *cough* @NHSEngland #DataStore *cough* - the team published a blog on what it was doing:

https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2020/10/29/how-the-nhs-covid-19-app-is-making-the-most-of-cutting-edge-global-technology/ https://twitter.com/EinsteinsAttic/status/1321928586585059329

In this blog, the app team gave an explanation of the latest changes it had made - including a reduction in the #RiskThreshold, which took account of TWO factors: the inclusion of a measure of #infectiousness in the API *and* a new #distance algorithm...

https://healthtech.blog.gov.uk/2020/10/29/how-the-nhs-covid-19-app-is-making-the-most-of-cutting-edge-global-technology/

In case folks aren't aware, @Google & @Apple's #ExposureNotification API is quite frequently updated. As the #Android developer pages (and #nhsxCOVID18app's blog) say, the #infectiousness field was only added at v1.6; with functionality changing at 1.7

https://developers.google.com/android/exposure-notifications/exposure-notifications-api#modes

Meanwhile, @Apple's #iOS 13.7 which first incorporated #ExposureNotificationExpress into the operating system was launched at the beginning of September:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2020/09/01/apple-releases-ios-137-surprise-update-with-indispensable-covid-19-upgrade/

and this update also included a new method to calculate #ExposureRiskValue:

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/exposurenotification

So there are a number of quite complex, significantly interacting 'moving parts' in play for an app that, in the UK, is now at least at version 3.9 - the #DPIA for #nhsxCOVID19app having last been updated on 1 October, at version 3.3

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-covid-19-app-privacy-information/the-nhs-test-and-trace-app-early-adopter-trial-august-2020-data-protection-impact-assessment

Now the controversial bit, which I guess no-one is going to like: the #nhsxCOVID19app, LIKE ALL OTHER #ExposureNotification apps around the world*, is at best #experimental software (as is the API)...

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*Which, as we've said, are #AppsForTheNextPandemic:
https://medconfidential.org/2020/apps-for-the-next-pandemic/

...and, whatever else we think we're doing, those using it are all participating in a gigantic #PublicHealth ' #ClinicalTrial'.

We are feeling our way. Methodically (thank fuck!). People are going to make mistakes. And through learning from them, things will hopefully improve...

So while I will continue to hold all those using our data to account, as best as I am able, I am not going to lose my shit over a mistake that *may* have been avoidable but that, when it was discovered, *was fixed*.

We STILL don't know if the #RiskThreshold is set correctly...

...we are quite literally going to have to FIND THAT OUT, and it'll be dependent on a whole *bunch* of factors in what is after all a mass #technosocial experiment - not a magic #SilverBullet.

What's more disturbing to me is the number of people taking this as an excuse to...

...advocate for a far more #surveillant, #location-tracking approach that I doubt would have convinced 20 million people to download the app, let alone use it.

Or, crucially, to follow its #advice.

(Not to mention other even longer term risks and harms that would introduce.)