![]() For instance, Rhode Island's "CRUSH COVID RI" app logs three weeks of location data, intended to help users recall contacts and help health experts identify virus hotspots. Other states are choosing to develop their own apps, but most of these are largely uninterested in user privacy. These interviews are voluntary, and some states are struggling with compliance. New York City plans to hire 2,500 contact tracers, while California will train up to 20,000. Instead, many cities and states have decided to hire platoons of contact tracers, who will conduct extensive interviews with coronavirus-positive patients and inform any notable contacts of their potential exposure to the disease. Yet j ust three states―Alabama, South Carolina, and North Dakota― plan to use the API to develop their contact tracing systems. Some privacy advocates prefer this approach, as the Apple-Google API would neither track location data nor store identifiable user information. ![]() For instance, lunch with a friend who tests positive would fit notification criteria incidental exposure at the supermarket probably wouldn't. Risk thresholds can be adjusted as more information about viral spread is discovered. When a Bluetooth "beacon" pings someone infected with the virus, users who were close enough for a heightened risk of infection can be notified to self-isolate and get tested. The Apple/Google project would have users opt in to sharing Bluetooth signals from their smartphone every 10 to 20 minutes. The API serves as a shortcut so developers needn't build the technology from scratch, and it allows different apps and operating systems to communicate. In April, Apple and Google announced that they had jointly developed an application programming interface (API) for developers working on contact tracing software. But state officials are increasingly forgoing the use of privately developed "contact tracing" software in favor of government-created systems that often require far more manual tracking of contacts-and do a worse job of protecting people's privacy. Silicon Valley has been developing systems allowing state public health authorities to trace those who have come into contact with people who tested positive for COVID-19.
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