Activate Exposure Notifications to Help Fight Covid-19 and Protect You and Your Family
By: Frank Gerber
Tags: Covid 19, Health, iPhone, Tech Tips, Productivity

A friend of mine serves on a government task force to source private company solutions to help address the many challenges our state (CA) faces from Covid-19. One of the solutions available here in CA is also available in many other states — Exposure Notifications. Exposure Notifications uses your phone’s Bluetooth to connect with other nearby phones (available on iPhone and Android). If you have been exposed to someone who has Covid-19, Exposure Notifications will notify you so that you can take preventative action. If you have concerns about privacy, you can read more below. In summary, I have zero worries and I am happily sharing my information in order to help fight Covid-19 and protect me and my family.

Here’s a hypothetical scenario to help you understand the process (from How-To Geek):

Let’s say Jack went to the park and sat next to Jill (a couple of feet apart, of course). They both have a health app that uses the Exposure Tracking API.

As both Jack and Jill stayed in the same place for more than 10 minutes, their smartphones exchanged Bluetooth beacons with unique keys.

A week or so later, Jill is diagnosed with COVID-19. She opens her health app, and using documents from her healthcare provider, submits the proof that she has tested positive for COVID-19.

Later in the day, Jack’s iPhone downloads a list of all the recent beacons for people who have tested positive for COVID-19. Jack receives a notification that he was in contact with someone who has COVID-19 because of his interaction with Jill at the park.

All this happens privately; Jack doesn’t know who Jill is or when he crossed paths with someone with the virus. It will only tell Jack when the beacons were exchanged.

Jack can then follow the app’s guidance on what to do next.

If Jack then tests positive with COVID-19, he can follow the same steps to alert the people he might have been in contact with.

To activate Exposure Notifications, visit this Washington Post article for specifics in your state. It is widely available today. If it is not currently available in your area, check back frequently because many states will be activating it very soon. Note that you will need to be running the newest version of iOS or Android on your phone for this feature to work. Here is some additional information on Exposure Notifications on an iPhone and on Android.

In general, for the iPhone go to Settings>Exposure Notifications. If you don’t see it there, try Settings>Health>Exposure Notifications.

Exposure Notifications is a great example of how technology can be used for the common good. It also shows how people, working together, in times of crisis can do amazing things!

Privacy

Exposure Notifications does not collect device location to detect exposures and does not share your identity with other users. The random keys are exchanged using Bluetooth and are not linked to your identity or location. The keys change every 15 minutes to protect privacy. The identifiers exchanged with other phones and the keys shared with the system when you are positive are randomly generated numbers that don’t contain any personal identifiable information. The identifiers exchanged with other phones are stored securely on your phone by the operating system in a way that no other software application can access them, nor do they ever leave the phone.

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