Written by Riley Gould
Beginning this week many residents of California received a notification to enable Coronavirus exposure alerts. This new system, deemed CA Notify, will anonymously alert people if they may have been exposed to the virus.
It works by anonymously exchanging random ID’s between the users phone and the phones around them. Those ID’s are stored for 14 days. If someone tests positive for the virus, they can alert the public health authority and give them their ID. Then, people who had been near that person in the last 14 days will receive an alert that they may have been exposed to the virus.
“Throughout this pandemic we have tapped California’s talent pool to fight this virus and that includes working with tech innovators like Apple and Google,” said Governor Newsom. “CA Notify will help slow the spread by alerting those who opt in to receive an alert if they’ve come into contact with someone who has tested positive. The process is private, anonymous and secure, and is one of the many tools in the state’s data-driven approach to help reduce the spread.”
California has one of the biggest populations of the 19 US states that have begun to use this exposure notification system. California’s Department of Public Health estimates that around 4 million people have signed up, which is about 10% of the state.
Photo via ca.gov
