As per our report earlier today, Apple and Google have announced that the finalized API for their COVID-19 Exposure Notification technology has been rolled out to public health authorities throughout the world. The representatives of both companies revealed that 22 countries have requested or provided access to the API.
At first, it was not known whether the Malaysian government has requested for access since the names of those 22 countries were not made available to the public. However, the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Khairy Jamaluddin has since confirmed via Twitter that the request has been made to Apple and Google.
I’ve just checked with the team. We have requested for the API. Hope to get it in the next few days.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) May 21, 2020
The policy for COVID-19 Exposure Notification technology that Apple and Google have laid down for public health authorities is rather strict. For example, only one app per country can utilize the API and the app is not allowed to request for Location Services.
For now, it seems to us that the Malaysian authorities have yet to meet these two requirements. For starters, they have released three different COVID-19 apps to the public including MySejahtera, Gerak Malaysia, and MyTrace.
Even though when you consider MyTrace as the primary candidate for the API access since Minister Khairy is overseeing its development, MyTrace currently still requires access to Location Services. The minister has yet to respond to our query on Twitter regarding these matters.
As mentioned in the tweet above, we will likely know the answer in a few days. We will keep you posted once we receive further updates.
