Particularly as people return to work or places like restaurants reopen, these apps could be helpful in letting people know they’ve been in contact with someone who tests positive, although officials caution they are not a replacement for contact tracing and social distancing. New York and New Jersey announced they’re sharing data on positives with each other, as well as Pennsylvania and Delaware to create a regional network that covers people as they live and work across the various state lines. Connecticut will join when its app launches “in the coming weeks.”
In the UK the NHS recently released an app based on the technology, while XDA-Developers dug into Google’s database to create a list of states and countries that have either released apps or are working on on.
For more information on how the technology works and how it maintains user privacy, check out Google’s information site here.
