California launching contact tracing app built on Apple/Google tech

California is finally getting its own contact tracing app.

What you need to know

• California is rolling out its own contact tracing app built on Apple and Google's technology.
• The CA Notify app will be available to download on Thursday, December 10.

Reported by TechCrunch, California has officially launched its own COVID-19 contact tracing app statewide. The CA Notify app, which was on a pilot program last month, will be available for all residents in the state to download on Thursday, December 10, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.

The app uses the Exposure Notification technology developed by Apple and Google, which uses Bluetooth instead of GPS to determine if you have been potentially exposed to someone who has reported themselves as testing positive for COVID-19.

In the case of California, the state has set contact with a confirmed COVID-19 positive individual of within six feet for a period of 15 minutes or more as meriting an exposure notification. Users who receive a positive COVID-19 test will get a text message from the Department of Public Health for the state that contains a code they input in the CA Notify app in order to trigger an alert broadcast to any phones that met the criteria above during the prior 14 days (the period during which the virus is transmissible).

Like the other contact tracing apps using Apple and Google's technology, it does not ask that users provide any personal information.

As mentioned, there's no personal information transmitted from a user's device via the notification system, and it's a fully opt-in arrangement. Other states have already deployed exposure notification apps based on the Apple/Google API, as have many other countries around the world. It's not a replacement for a contact-tracing system, in which healthcare professionals attempt to determine who a COVID-19 patient came in contact with to find out how they might have contracted the virus, and to whom they may spread it, but it is a valuable component of a comprehensive tracing program that can improve its efficacy and success.

Users should expect to see the CA Notify app in the App Store on Thursday.

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