California’s departments of Public Health and Technology announced this week that they plan to expand the pilot of a mobile app designed by Google and Apple that notifies a user when they have been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus.
The state rolled out the pilot project in mid-September at the University of California’s campuses in San Diego and San Francisco. Now, the project will expand to include UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara
and UC Riverside, according to state officials.
“Extending the pilot project allows us to reach a larger and more diverse pool of users to further evaluate the technology’s potential to help California slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Erica Pan, the state’s interim public health officer.
The app, called CA Notify, uses Bluetooth technology to notify users who are nearing someone who has tested positive for the virus, according to the CDPH.
CA Notify users must voluntarily activate the app, which does not reveal the identity or precise location of the coronavirus-positive user. The app also does not collect, store or transmit identifying user information, according to the CDPH.
In addition to schools in the UC system, CA Notify is also being tested at universities in Colorado, Nevada, Washington and Oregon – the members of the Western States Pact, along with California.
About 15,000 users at UC San Diego and 5,000 users at UCSF are now using CA Notify, according to the CDPH, representing about half the on-campus communities of both schools.
State officials have touted the app’s potential to help slow the virus’ spread and streamline contact tracing efforts once someone does test positive.
“The more people who use the application, the slower the virus will spread,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, UCSD Health’s chief information officer.
“By expanding into additional geographical areas, we can benefit more of the full population,” Longhurst continued. “The big picture is a safer California for everyone.”
18 comments
Once again, QUARANTINES are for the sick……so how would I be exposed to them???
Oh Mike
Definition of fascism
1 often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.
Reminds me of…. you.
Wrong Mike……but we can all see that you’ve done Zero research on the PCR test, typical.
BTW, just do what your team does when they want to manipulate results = stop counting.
“The more people who use the application, the slower the virus will spread,” said Dr. Christopher Longhurst, UCSD Health’s chief information officer.
So if we use the app, the virus will slow down and if we don’t use it the virus will never go away…… someone please explain this.
RIP Alex Trebek
.
“The big picture is a safer California for everyone”.
.
The excuse for everything in CA to dupe the uninformed and ignorant public.
.
I for one wouldn’t use this app ever.
The state can stick this app up Newsoms butt.
I can absolutely see this technology being used in the future of San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and other violent Blue areas to notify activists if they are near someone registered Republican. The tech and databases are already there since voter registration is public knowledge and this test of technology for crowd control and coronavirus is easily transferable. The SF Chronicle already has stories tracking down which neighborhoods had the most Trump voters. There is reason the Cubans in Florida, with direct knowledge of socialism, voted Trump and against Biden. These progressive voters have no idea what they are doing.
There is a huge push in tech right now in putting software and databases together. The story above is an example of a medical reason while I just provided a possible political application. Over in the politics forum a story was just mentioned, “Democrats Compile List Of Names Targeting White House Staff, Trump Campaign, Judges, And Donors.” A few years ago no one could have imagined that coworkers with a few keystrokes could find out your age online as well as your contributions to the local school.
@mike – Voter record access is “limited” to certain parties and groups, but they could easily be leaked for nefarious use. Public data include voter name, address, phone number and political party. If a smart phone leaked the owner’s name, finding a matching is child’s play.
This is such a bad idea. If people don’t trust public health measures they will not cooperate with *any* of them. A typical techie “solution” that seems so clever but will just damage the cooperation between the public and public health officials.
If you think about this for ten seconds, it makes no sense as a voluntary program. Who would be the kind of person to (1) opt in to this app, and (2) go around in public after a positive Covid test?? Where do those Venn diagrams overlap? This only makes sense if you can require it of a whole community, like a residential campus.
But even there, think about the distrust of other people this is going to foster. Dystopian, even aside from the surveillance angle. It is going to make people even more suspicious of each other. Either that or they will just be ticked off and pay no attention to it (I would put money on this outcome).
The 21st Century equivalent of the scarlet letter ?
An of course nothing will go wrong . . . . . .
and the total control over the population is moving forward
congratz
history will not be kind to your allegiance to socialist control
Why not just skip to putting bar codes on everyone🙄🙄🙄
Who are these pinheads who write this stuff up in Sacramento?
government labeling & tracking & ostracizing of citizens…the Chinese, Germans, Russians, North Koreans all believe(d) it was for the common good as well…and of course, that segment that won’t comply…gulags
Too bad it won’t work on my flip-phone.
Comments are closed.