New York State has just launched an app that will notify the user if he or she is within six feet of anyone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
COVID Alert NY sounds great — but here’s the catch: it only works if the person who tested positive has also downloaded the app and registered their COVID-19 diagnosis, and if they are within six feet of the user.
If they did, the app alerts anyone who has recently been within six feet of the infected individual for more than 10 minutes.
How recently? Good question.
“COVID Alert NY is a voluntary, anonymous, exposure-notification smartphone app. You will get an alert if you were in close contact with someone who tests positive for COVID-19. Knowing about a potential exposure allows you to self-quarantine immediately, get tested and reduce the potential exposure risk to your family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and others,” the New York State Health Department website explains.
The free mobile app – available to anyone 18 or older who lives, works, or attends college in New York or New Jersey. available for download from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Korean, Russian and Haitian Creole.
It uses Bluetooth technology – not geographic – and does not track or store any personal information, according to the governor’s office. It will not, however, track your location, according to NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo, does not use GPS and is “completely anonymous.” Hard to believe, if you are registering a COVID-19 diagnosis with the app, but that’s what it says.
: New York just launched COVID Alert NY, an exposure app that will alert you if you were in contact with someone who has COVID.
The app will never track your location & is completely anonymous.
Protect your community, yourself & your privacy. Download the app today ⬇️
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo)