Any nation which can muster app designers is creating their own Covid-19 contact-tracing app. This app identifies and notifies anyone who came in contact with a carrier. Some of these only collect essential data for contact tracing, while others are more Orwellian. For example, China’s app retrieves citizens’ identity, location, and even online payment history so that local police can nab quarantine breakers. 

There are all type of groups involved here, from small groups of coders to mega-tech companies. Apple and Google have huge teams building their systems, which could be immediately available to hundreds of millions.  That might make an impact. 

Contact tracing is not new and several companies have patented inventions for this purpose. Blyncsy and Cstar are two small companies with patents in the area. Mitsubishi is at the other end of the company-size spectrum.