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COVID-19 contact tracing apps could help experts better understand the virus, quickly alert people to potential exposure

The apps do not record your location. Instead, they use Bluetooth technology to recognize devices you come in contact with.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — As contact tracing for COVID-19 continues to grow, your phone could soon alert you if you've come into contact with someone who has the virus. 

COVID-19 exposure logging is now listed under privacy settings on iPhones. It's using technology at our fingertips to go beyond what traditional contact tracing can do. 

RELATED: VERIFY: Are people with iPhone or Android phones automatically signed up for contact tracing?

"We could track that I went to the store and I talked to Jane, or saw my neighbor," said Harrisburg University Professor Charles Palmer when talking about traditional contact tracing. "But, we couldn't track that I was in line at the bank and there were two people behind me."

Some people fear this is 'big brother' type of technology but, Palmer says, the applications aren't tracking your location. Instead, they use bluetooth technology to recognize the devices you come into contact with.  The same technology you use to connect your phone to your car, speakers or when you AirDrop. 

"What it says essentially is, device 456 was 18-feet away from me for 45 minutes," said Palmer. "Thats what it's tracking." 

Right now, it's up to state health departments to roll out their own COVID-19 contact tracing apps that would work with Apple and Android devices. Currently, Pennsylvania has not created a compatible contact tracing app. 

When the app is used, health care providers would be the only ones able to send out alerts that someone you were near tested positive for COVID-19. 

"Let's say down the road you become infected," said Palmer. "A health care provider would then be able to look at your device using a software solution that decrypts the information there. It doesn't even expose the individuals, it simply sends out a message to those devices and says you have been in contact with someone who has been infected." 

Palmer says, it is important to only download and use contact tracing apps from trusted sources.

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