COVID app warns of possible exposure
Statewide app says if you were within six feet of person who tested positive
BY MARK HALLUM
New York State rolled
out on Thursday, Oct. 1, a
new $700,000 app that will
automatically inform users
whether or not they have
been exposed to someone testing
positive for COVID-19.
Paid for by the Bloomberg
Foundation, Governor Andrew
Cuomo announced
Thursday that COVID Alert
NY will protect the personal
information of users
while taking a load off
the shoulders of the state’s
contact tracing corp.
According to Larry
Schwartz, a former highranking
aid to the governor,
this is achieved not through
location services tied to
smartphones but through
the device’s Bluetooth
proximity detection.
Once a person tests positive,
they are given a code
by the state Department of
Health to punch into the app
providing an anonymous
alert to other devices that
have been within six feet of
the patient’s own smartphone
for over ten minutes.
“This app will tell you
if you were within six feet
of a person who tested positive…
for 10 minutes,” Cuomo
said. “It doesn’t give names,
doesn’t give any privacy
info, you have to download
the app.”
App code is open source
and does not collect data,
Schwartz said, in attempt to
dispel alarm from New Yorkers
who may be leery of state
surveillance. The user must
opt-in to use the app which is
restricted to people 18 years
and older.
“Anybody can go to the Linux
Foundation, get the code
and take a look at how the
program actually works and
you’ll see that we don’t collect
any data. There’s no locator
device on the app that can
track whoever downloads the
app at all. So we were very
sensitive to making sure it
was a secure database to get
people to voluntarily download
the app. Otherwise it
doesn’t work,” Schwartz said.
“We to great lengths, we had
expert security people review
the application to ensure that
everything is confi dential.”
Visit our Webinar Library
Schneps Media YouTube Channel
FREE WEBINARS
With top experts in
Real Estate Health Home Design
Education Elder Care Finances
and much more....
REGISTER NOW
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,44 OCTOBER 9-15, 2020 BTR
Cuomo claimed that mitigating
a potential data breach
was one of the reasons why
the app took a prolonged period
of time to develop. The
only data collected is the
proximity of one individual
to another, he said.
Similar technology has
also been recently deployed
by the state of Pennsylvania,
but the New York-based app
will facilitate contact tracing
in New Jersey with Connecticut
coming online soon, according
to Cuomo.
The launch COVID Alert
NY comes during a week when
both the city and the state
have been working to stamp
out proverbial fi res in 20 ZIP
codes which have seen a rise
in the infection rate that include
a number in Brooklyn,
bringing the citywide infection
rate to about 1.52% on a
seven-day average.
Download the COVID
Alert NY app here for iPhones
or here for Androids.
WEBINARS PRESENTS
www.SchnepsMedia.com/webinars
/webinars
/webinars