North Dakota, Wyoming and Alabama Launching Exposure Notification Apps Soon

by

North Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama are all launching contact tracing apps that take advantage of Apple and Google's Exposure Notification API to cut down on the spread of the coronavirus, reports Reuters.

exposure notification cartoon
North Dakota's app, Care19 Alert, is launching today, while Wyoming plans to launch an app on Friday. Alabama's app, which has been in testing with university students and staff, will market its app statewide starting on Monday.

Virginia earlier in August became the first U.S. state to debut an app that uses the ‌Exposure Notification‌ API when it launched COVIDWISE. Virginia state department health official Jeff Stover told Reuters that 316,000 people have downloaded the app so far.

Washington and Pennsylvania are two other states that are expected to launch contact tracing apps that use the ‌Exposure Notification‌ API in the coming weeks. Right now, many of these apps are not designed to work across state lines, with North Dakota's app being the first in the U.S. to support the functionality.

The apps are designed to limit the spread of the coronavirus by using Bluetooth to track who people come into contact with. The idea is that when a person comes down with COVID-19, an alert can be sent out to everyone they were around so those people can quarantine and watch out for symptoms.

Multiple countries, including Switzerland, Latvia, Italy, Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Ireland, Croatia, Denmark, and Canada have also launched apps that use the ‌Exposure Notification‌ API.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tags: COVID-19 Coronavirus Guide, Exposure Notification Guide

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Top Rated Comments

Treq Avatar
Treq
68 months ago

It's political because governments are overtly wanting to have your location and interactions tracked and monitored. And some people, for whatever dumb reason, are wanting to comply with obedience.

And a perfect case in point:



Get the camel's nose under the tent, then just do whatever you want.
I have a feeling you don't understand how this contact tracing works. There is no GPS involved. Your contacts are tracked by your phone sending out a code via bluetooth. that code is picked up by other phones within a small radius of you and stored there. Your phone is also picking up codes from other phones at the same time and storing those codes. All the codes are anonymous. No user data is attached and all codes are stored locally on the phones. Once someone who has the app tests positive, only then does that person inform the app and the codes it has stored from the last two weeks are then uploaded to a server. Meanwhile all the apps on the other phones check that server regularly for the codes it has been transmitting. If it finds one of it's codes it informs the user. It is completely anonymous. Also completely voluntary.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nutmac Avatar
nutmac
68 months ago
This article is tagged as political, which is sad. Health should be of universal concern. The app should also be implemented at the federal level, so that people who live near the border don't have to deal with multiple apps.

Speaking of political, it's worth noting that solid blue states have yet to release exposure notification apps, further adding to my frustration.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Macaholic868 Avatar
Macaholic868
68 months ago
We’re the United States of America and we’re being run like a third world country. State apps are like gun control laws. They don’t work well unless they are uniform across all states since we’re all free to cross state lines whenever we want.

Where’s the app from the federal government developed with input from the states? We don’t have one. Trump is apparently too busy doing who knows what to give the order for the CDC, the NIH or both to work together to do even basic things like this. That’s not a political statement, that’s a fact. What a disaster...
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DocMultimedia Avatar
DocMultimedia
68 months ago
I really wish there would be a standard one for the country. I hate to say it, but people do travel between states. Oh well, at least I have the Virginia one. So far I haven't been exposed to a known case. :)
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Treq Avatar
Treq
68 months ago

No.



Good. Enough with this ******** yearning and zeal for centralized tracking of citizens.
First: Yes. A simple google search would able to get you that information. Hell I think they did a story about it here in this very site.

Second, No one is talking about centralized tracking. As I stated in my above post the tracing is completely decentralized and anonymous. The app should be pushed to every phone though and the paranoid people who don't understand how tracing works given a way to opt out. Centralized management of a pandemic is the only way to accomplish the desired results. You seem to be confused about the difference between decentralized anonymous tracking and centralized management and consistent guidelines. If you decentralize the management you get conflicting guidelines and confused citizens. If you centralize tracking there is the potential for abuse. That's why a central management and decentralized anonymous tracing is the optimal way to manage this pandemic. Are we clear now. Or you still fuzzy on the whole good - bad thing?

Finally, Just an FYI, if the government wanted to track you with a phone, they don't need this app to do it. They already can.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jpn Avatar
jpn
68 months ago

I really wish there would be a standard one for the country. I hate to say it, but people do travel between states. Oh well, at least I have the Virginia one. So far I haven't been exposed to a known case. :)
yes.this.
a federal level provided app would be incredibly useful.

but the good news is that with the latest revisions to the google/apple api itself that google and apple have made to it recently, there is available the option for the individual level health agencies at state level (and internationally among countries) to share results.
so yr own state can opt in for sharing its data with other states if there is enough pressure put on the state's health officials to do it.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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