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So... NHS Contact Tracing App

LeMarchand

By LeMarchand
in General Chat

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mavhc

mavhc

Posted
Posted

Government: we need an app to do this!

Company: we can totally do that

Programmers in company: yeah, but that's impossible, it won't work

Company: that's ok, we already have the money, and no one ever elects people who know anything about technology, even though that's the main skill people need to have in the 21st century.

stevejp

stevejp

Posted
Posted

One of the more confusing bits is that South Korea has a contact tracing App, that by all accounts is good. The country is pretty widely recognised as a democratic place with decent human rights etc similar to ours. Why aren't we asking for theirs and adjusting it to suit us?

 

Because that would mean admitting that either a) we’re not very good at something or b) that another country is better than us - and, y’know, we’re Great Britain, and we couldn’t possibly concede that some foreigner might be better than us.

 

warning - the above might contain just a trace of sarcasm...

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mikeprice

mikeprice

Posted
Posted

I heard on the telly this morning that the app doesn't work on Huawei phones - or on 'older' version of Android or older iphones

 

I have noticed that most of the phones I have owned cannot be updated excpet for occaisional security patches - if I try to get hold of app for my previous phone most them won't run on it

But - it can't be updated - apparently because Samaung make them that way

 

Which seems like a possible gaping hole in the logic if anyone owning a phone by 2 major manufacturers cannot use the app if their phone if more than a few years old

 

especially as they need coverage of over 70%

 

Maybe they don't realise that a lot of people can't afford - or don;t want - to get a new shiny iphone every year or so

 

p.s. is there actually any way to update an old Samsung??

mikeprice

mikeprice

Posted
Posted
I wouldn't take your tech advice from "the telly", find a decent tech site for actual info

 

Well no - but it is a starting point

 

anyway - anyone know any sites where techs hang out?????:p

Arthur

Arthur

Posted
Posted

How CIA-backed Palantir embedded itself in the NHS

 

For Palantir, that meant putting 40 engineers to work – for a nominal fee of £1. For just over a month, the NHS has been using Palantir’s Foundry software to bring together lab test results, hospital and supply chain data to see which hospitals need beds, gear or ventilators.

 

It is possible that the contact tracing data from the NHS app being trialled on the Isle of Wight could also be integrated, leading to earlier predictions.

 

It’s fair to assume Palantir won’t keep offering its services for free forever. After all, there are wages to be paid. And with its employees receiving an average £220,000 per year according to records from 2019, they do not come cheap.

 

Some believe that it is access to NHS data, among the most lucrative data sets in the world, that is the real attraction here.

 

"Palantir is asking for £1 to send tens of software engineers", says Eerke Boiten, director of Cyber Technology Institute at De Montfort University.

 

"If you look at their behaviour in the US they clearly do not see themselves as a charity and they do not act like they have a social conscience. So what’s the reason behind it?"

 

Palantir now has 600 employees in its London office. Foundry is largely engineered here.

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Andrew_C

Andrew_C

Posted
Posted
I heard on the telly this morning that the app doesn't work on Huawei phones

So, those Chinese have produced a phone that you can't install a tracking app on? Sort of shows up American 'security concerns' with the company...

LeMarchand

LeMarchand

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An average wage of £220k? No wonder the app has cost so much to build!

 

I read somewhere that Palantir only charged £1. Yup, move along - nothing to see here.

LeMarchand

LeMarchand

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When your company name is synonymous with evil, and you don't change it

 

They must have actively chosen the name, given their foundation was in 2003 and Fellowship of the Ring came out almost 50 years earlier...

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