Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the statewide launch of CA Notify, a new digital tool that he claims will help reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
Starting Thursday, December 10, Californians can opt in to receive COVID-19 notifications informing them if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for 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.”
When individuals activate CA Notify, the tool uses Bluetooth technology to exchange random codes between phones without revealing the user’s identity or location. If a CA Notify user tests positive for COVID-19, they will receive a verification code to plug into the app. Any other CA Notify users who have been within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more of the COVID-19 positive individual will get an anonymous notification of possible exposure.
Oh, please sign me up right away! Said no one. I trust Apple, Google and Newsom almost as much as I trust Satan.
The only new tool around here is Newsom himself!
Hes a past, present and future tool.
I suspect this app will have very little downloads, similar to these apps in other states.
Results will remain anonymous. The government, media, big tech, and Nanny Newsome all deserve your trust.
No way am I putting this app on my phone, one more way for them to keep track of you and I’m not going to get the vaccine. Government over reach.
@Dorie
How is it overreach? Neither of the things you mentioned are mandatory
We already know Newsom’s a tool. I was notified already
Wait a minute, you mean the tried and true method of tattooing a series of numbers on the inner forearm is no longer sufficient.
I guess this is just another big tech contribution to our social well-being. Oh, I see, overtime this can be updated to track your vaccination compliance and eventually keep a tally on your overall social equity score. I hear this went over so well in China that people are just dying to try it.
How’bout nooo!
Oh ya!
Let me sign up for that right now.
LOL
Here comes the tracking app so they can see everywhere and everything you do, watch out people!!!!
They already know. I was flabbergasted when Google sent me a report telling me everywhere I had been in the last month with the map and general pictures of each location. I never knew that app was active! I turned it off!
Leave it to CA to invent, . . . Scarlet Bluetooth.
Unfortunately I had to update my iPhone and this “tracking” was a feature that I was able to activate in the “Health” app that comes with the phone.
Needless to say this feature was not activated `
Nope nope nope
Newscum certainly was tracked to French Laundry, as well as the other libs who make “rules for thee, but not for me.”
“Big Brother” realized — peddled “for your own good.” Government can now know where you are and what you are doing at all times. Opportunist that he is, Newson has used the occurrence of this pandemic to take every liberty in violating, not just the civil rights of the citizenry, but the human rights, as well.
Why so much effort and money being put into something that isn’t going to be around much longer? Remember the “experts” say the big bad virus is going to be over by the middle of next year. And we have the vaccine ready to go in just a few short weeks.
Still believe this is a concern for your health?
Absolutely, here is the snitch app….and newscum IS a tool!
they can forget it!! We know who the real TOOLs are and it’s not WE THE PEOPLE ……who are sick and tired of this crap!!
I will not contribute to the unemployment of the pilots of those black helicopters circling over head.
@S…Black helicopter pilots lives matter!…#BHPLM.
Black helicopters don’t circle. They fly over very low … and slow.
Bluetooth can penetrate walls and it has range of about 30 feet. Thus it is possible someone who tested could be in an adjacent room that you will not come into contact with thus not exposed and yet you will be alerted. That’s sort of a flaw in the design and why I read some states have dropped the program. Bureaucrats are really bad at understanding technology.
Yes, and tech bros are bad at understanding the limits of their cool toys.
Years ago when it was i introduced, I read that Bluetooth presented cybersecurity risks, should be kept disabled except when in use, and only then when it is transferring encrypted data.
.https://cybersecurity.att.com/blogs/security-essentials/bluetooth-security-risks-explained
How’bout nooo!
The App is already on everyone’s smart phone. The app was installed many months ago if you have allowed your phone to be updated by the manufacturer. The app installed in the off position. All that has to be done is you turn it on to “opt in”.
I for one will never be activating the app. It seems like a gross violation of privacy let alone a possible violation of HIPPA laws. Why would anyone want to be treated like a leper, especially when they no longer are contagious is beyond me, especially when there is a 99.8% survival rate.
I think that is only true with Apple but not Google. There are different apps for Google phones and only the framework got installed.
@Captain Bebops
I have a Google phone and it was installed months ago during an update. It’s under settings. Then click on Google Services and Preferences. It’s the first thing listed.
That’s the framework not the app. They’ve added a switch so you have to turn it on. The app hasn’t been released yet but apparently will be on the 10th. The tracing apps are open source and source can be downloaded on GitHub.
No possibility of this being abused…
Can we all agree Gavin should be voted as USEFUL IDIOT OF THE YEAR?
Hey Chris, what’s makes him useful?
No, it should be USELESS idiot if the year
You and your family go for it Governor. As for me and my family, we have no interest in the tracking device. Goodness!
Well, since I don’t have a cell phone…… 🙂
I have a trac phone but rarely carry it or use it. I have it for emergencies if the phone lines go down or if I’m taking a road trip.
This constant push for having turn ALL of our information to tech companies reminded me of a Netflix episode called Nosedive. It’s becoming eerily similar.
Here is the link for the Netflix episode
https://vimeo.com/408937522
What an idiot. Sign the recall.
Pushing to have us use this “tool” is pretty much pushing for the elimination of the HIPPA Law and Privacy Rule.
As others have stated, this is all about control. If citizens health was important, decisions like this would have NEVER been made.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/new-california-law-reduces-penalty-knowingly-exposing-someone-hiv-n809416#:~:text=The%20new%20law%2C%20which%20was%20signed%20by%20Brown,with%20HIV%20from%20a%20felony%20to%20a%20misdemeanor.
Gavin can be the 1st to sign up and let us know how it worked for him.
SIGN THE RECALL
I hear that app also tracks how many squares of toilet paper you use, if it’s 1-ply or 2-ply and if you wash your hands when you’re done.
Unless you have a pre-GPS flip phone, only pay with cash or check, and strictly browse the internet through a VPN connection, being paranoid about an app like this is laughable. Your privacy was sold out a long time ago.
Thank you Massa . . . . You sho’nuff a good Owner.
Not true for so many people that lost their jobs or extra income to be able to afford food let alone Christmas dinner. But then I suppose you think they should be grateful to stand in food lines.
It appears we have a new Hitler dictatorship. Just another way of tracking our movements. No way. I want my rights as an American citizen back, just like the protestors get and criminals, plus the leftists, who can do anything they wish or say anything they wish with no consequences.
@nytemuvr – I’m sure it also records Toobin sessions along with measurements on duration, intensity, and who/what you were thinking about at the time. The state monetizes the data as part of making up for the deficit.
@Captain Bebops – while an app itself may be open source they rely on libraries and app builders that are not open source. The reason many framework libraries and app builders are free or very low cost is that they embed their own tracking and monetization systems in the app that gets released to the public.
App developers want to focus on their idea and not the nuts and bolts of the idiosyncrasies in every platform and framework. App developers also want the convenience of being able to code and maintain a single app that works on iPhones, Androids, Windows phones, Windows 10 desktops, and more. Today’s marketplace is structured such that developers can’t charge $1000 or more for an app. That forces developers to seek low cost or free development platforms and frameworks which leads straight into those apps having embedded tracking, advertising, and more.
It’s also concerning that a framework for COVID-19 tracking apps was developed and has been embedded into and released as part of both Android and iPhone platform updates. Mass surveillance on a global scale has been activated on the pretext of fighting the coronavirus.
@WC Resident, FYI, I have been developing software for 37 years and also worked for a major software company. I’ve been developing for mobile since 1998 starting with the Palm Pilot. I’ve developed for Android since 2009 and for iOS recently. I also develop desktop apps. I also have apps on GitHub that are open source.
The purpose of the open source for contact tracing was so the source could be used by different health concerns and agencies for their own app. There has been at least 3 repositories available.
Yes, I switched my mobile and desktop development to Xamarin several years ago. One set of code for all platforms. Xamarin is not without it’s quirks and will be deprecated a year from now and they are launching a new framework promising it to be easier to use. We’ll see. 😀
You get some idea of the learning disability and confusion of Newsom and those running this fiasco when you notice that the most severe restrictions occur, not in the traditional “red,” indicating “stop,” “crisis,'” “caution,” etc., but a newly “invented” purple which they have deemed WORSE THAN RED. Nothings like reinventing the importance of RED.
Blue skies that quite an invention !!