Contact tracing app

I understand some European countries and even some states use contact tracing apps on smartphones to help alert people that they might have been in contact with someone who has since tested positive. The apps I have read about do not collect any personal or location data - just let your phone know if it has been close to another phone of someone who has tested positive. The phones exchange anonymous codes via Bluetooth but that’s all.

I don’t hear anyone talking about this but it seems to me to be a zero effort way to fight the spread of the virus.
Any thoughts on why this isn’t one of the big talking points for the presidential candidates, Fauci or the CDC?

 

I have that app installed. I've had a few notifications that I've been close to a positive case but quickly received notification that contact was too short to be of a threat. It's a little annoying that they send the first notification instead of doing a check first.

 

I don't know why there isn't more discussion/explanation regarding this or any other technology used to provide warnings/education to the public. I know there has been concern expressed by many saying their privacy is being compromised, but I think privacy is thrown out the window when you use any internet enabled device these days. (FTR, I'm not one concerned about privacy and the internet.) Anything that can allow us to start living our lives again, in a safe way, should be widely accepted and used.

 

You are near an innoculated person, many times, every day.
That's the reality of community acquired viruses.

The app is useless

 

What's that got to do with the app?

 

We needed it when there were 15 cases going down to zero.

 

Think back into history, and what happened when a particular group was marked as being a member of a specific group.

That should explain why many people won't be involved with a 'contact tracing app'.

 

The app does not inform you that you are near an inoculated person. It tells you that you have been near to someone who just recently tested positive and you were near them for 15 minutes (not 100% sure of time)

 

The app does not tell you who you were near that recently tested positive.

 

So how does it 'trace your contacts'?

 

Except the apps don’t identify you to anyone else.

Here’s the way they work. If you test positive you input a code to your phone (is n the app).
Your phone sends a message to the phones that have been near yours, telling those people that they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. You do not know who your message has been sent to, they don’t know who it’s come from and nobody can identify either of you. Not the government, not the network, not the app.

 

It uses bluetooth to monitor other people's phones. All participants will have downloaded the app and turned on bluetooth. I have the app on my phone. If I'm near someone who also has the app their phone will register my number, my phone will log and register their phone number. If any of us tests positive tomorrow, everyone in the logged numbers register will receive a message saying that they have been in close proximity with someone who has tested positive recently and was close by for 15 minutes or more. It's up to the user to report positive test result. It is all anonymous

 

It exchanges anonymous codes via Bluetooth. You can’t

 

If you use your phone for this, do you really believe 'no one knows'?

 

If you test positive then it goes on your records anyway else how else would they inform you of your result. It's up to you if you enter that info on the phone app

 

So you are admitting it doesn't remain private. Lovely.

 

Your post makes no sense! How is it not private? No one knows which telephone number has reported a positive case

 

If you think an 'app' is private and doesn't know what telephone number has entered which data, then maybe I wouldn't be getting some of the spam I get....

 

So if you go to a test centre, how do you get your result and how private is that result?

 

The people who receive the notifications can’t trace it back to you.

 

That doesn't mean that the people who run the app don't know the phone number that entered the positive, and where it was located when it was pinged.

 

HIPPA, for the illusion of privacy.

 

So about as private as the government track & trace app

 

Why would they want to know that you are positive? The government knew you were positive before they told you

 

My understanding is they don’t. That the information tying the code to the phone number is stored locally on the phone.
So a phone has code xyz and it is sitting next to a phone with code abc for 30 minutes. They exchange a code recognising that they have been close to each other.
The owner of xyz tests positive and inputs a positive code (which you get from the doctor, I think) into the phone.
The app on the phone sends a message to the central server say xyz has tested positive and here are all the app codes that I’ve been in contact with. Actually it might not even say xyz has tested positive - just please send messages to these codes.

The central server doesn’t have phone numbers just codes. So it sends out push messages to those codes and the messages appear in the app saying abc has been in close proximity with someone who has now tested positive.

As I understand it, since the connection between the app code and the phone is held locally on the phone, there is no way to track phones from codes or vice versa. Unless you actually hold the phone in your hand. I don’t even know what my code is.