[CardinalSagehen]

I think we need to execute competently on basic, voluntary forms of tracing, including most notably a nationwide, opt-in contact tracing app with a robust PR campaign behind it. We should do this before moving to involuntary tracing, which I’d also support if the situation were grave enough and we had executed competently on everything else first. Right now, it’s hard to say what’s necessary because we have sucked so badly at the basics.  

Go to Setings / Privacy / Health / Covid-19 Exposure Notifications on your iPhone or the equivalent on your Android phone. You will see that Apple and Google have done some of their part by making contact tracing APIs available already.  The feature is totally opt-in, and data storage is decentralized and anonymized. Both companies have vowed never to use the data for commercial purposes and to kill the APIs after Covid-19 has passed. Only public health officials are supposed to be able to see the data, and I’m not quite clear on this, but I believe it might be anonymous data for them, too. 

Importantly, the tracing feature uses local Bluetooth signals, not GPS, to record proximity to others that turn out to be infected.   

An app doesn’t have to be used correctly and honestly by everyone to make a difference.  I think even 10-15% penetration of the American populace (with a natural uptick in the hardest-hit areas) would start to matter.  

Contact notification is immediate. Notified contacts would presumably get tested quickly and prevent further spreading.    

Our software industry is unparalleled and second to none, but apparently we can’t release a simple Bluetooth app because we have 50 states running in different directions and no federal Internet privacy laws to govern this sort of thing.

As a result, for now, the contact tracing features on all of our smartphones remain dormant and useless. I’d love to see what we can do with a real effort around these apps and a federal privacy framework to govern them.

There’s a bipartisan bill in Congress right now called the Exposure Notification Privacy Act.  I haven’t read it, but at a high level, I believe something like this is necessary to help us navigate the obvious privacy issues and move toward better, faster, safer use of technology for contact tracing.

[CardinalSagehen]

I think we need to execute competently on basic, voluntary forms of tracing, including most notably a nationwide, opt-in contact tracing app with a robust PR campaign behind it. We should do this before moving to involuntary tracing, which I’d also support if the situation were grave enough and we had executed competently on everything else first. Right now, it’s hard to say what’s necessary because we have sucked so badly at the basics.  

Go to Setings / Privacy / Health / Covid-19 Exposure Notifications on your iPhone or the equivalent on your Android phone. You will see that Apple and Google have done some of their part by making contact tracing APIs available already.  The feature is totally opt-in, and data storage is decentralized and anonymized. Both companies have vowed never to use the data for commercial purposes and to kill the APIs after Covid-19 has passed. Only public health officials are supposed to be able to see the data, and I’m not quite clear on this, but I believe it might be anonymous data for them, too. 

Importantly, the tracing feature uses local Bluetooth signals, not GPS, to record proximity to others that turn out to be infected.   

An app doesn’t have to be used correctly and honestly by everyone to make a difference.  I think even 10-15% penetration of the American populace (with a natural uptick in the hardest-hit areas) would start to matter.  

Contact notification is immediate. Notified contacts would presumably get tested quickly and prevent further spreading.    

Our software industry is unparalleled and second to none, but apparently we can’t release a simple Bluetooth app because we have 50 states running in different directions and no federal Internet privacy laws to govern this sort of thing.

As a result, for now, the contact tracing features on all of our smartphones remain dormant and useless. I’d love to see what we can do with a real effort around these apps and a federal privacy framework to govern them.

There’s a bipartisan bill in Congress right now called the Exposure Notification Privacy Act.  I haven’t read it, but at a high level, I believe something like this is necessary to help us navigate the obvious privacy issues and move toward better, faster, safer use of technology for contact tracing.