HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Department of Health is launching its own contact tracing app Pennsylvanians will be able to download and begin using in September. It will be called COVID Alert PA. The DOH is funding the $1.9 million app over two years from the CDC ELC grant.
"The app will be able to use exposure notification technology developed by Apple and Google to use Bluetooth to measure time and distance," said Department of Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. "Such as anytime anyone is in close proximity with another person."
For a short period of time, the app will anonymously keep information of the devices you were within sic feet of for more than 15 minutes. If one of those people tests positive for the virus, you'd be notified. However, the app will not record or keep track of your location.
"It will not store your specific location," said Dr. Levine. "I know people are concerned about that, that the government will somehow track your location. This will not do that."
The more people who use the app, the more effective it will be. Some experts say, 60 percent of a state's population will need to use contact tracing apps for them to be effective.
Currently, if you test positive for COVID-19, contact tracers will ask for where you've been and who you may have exposed. The app takes the guess work out of all of that.
"So, this app will help us, those individuals to know they were within six feet for 15 minutes and they are considered a close contact."
Cyber-security experts do remind people when downloading any application, to make sure it is the verified app. They also encourage users to read all the fine print of an app before downloading to understand how your data is being recorded and stored.
Harrisburg University Cybersecurity professor, Bruce Young the overall risk of the DOH's contact tracing app will likely be minimal.
"The overall risk level of the app itself and again depending on the information being gathered, it's going to be relatively low risk," said Young. "The app itself, hopefully they've vetted it and is secure and only gathers the information they say is going to be gathered."
More information on this app is expected to be released in the coming weeks before it launches sometime in September.