Page 38 - FCW, May 2021

FOR STATES’
COVID-19 CONTACT
TRACING APPS,
PRIVACY TOPS
UTILITY
Health officials say limited data collection was a necessary compromise to boost privacy — and adoption — of exposure notification apps
BY LINDSEY VAN NESS
The digital contact tracing effort trade-off required to assuage privacy ing evidence that they’re worth
in Virginia is 2 million phones
strong. Roughly a quarter of the adult population has downloaded the state’s COVIDWISE app or opted in on their iPhones to receive exposure notifi- cations. Almost 26,000 times, a notifica- tion has been sent to let someone know they were likely exposed to a person with COVID-19.
But that’s the bulk of the informa- tion the state health department can glean.
The system doesn’t track user loca- tions, so officials don’t know where exposures happened, according to Jeff Stover, an executive adviser to the commissioner of Virginia’s Depart- ment of Health. Officials can’t follow up on notifications to see whether exposed residents are isolating. Nor can they pinpoint potential hotspot locations.
“The fact that we do not collect name or location data makes it a lit- tle more difficult to evaluate effective- ness,” he said.
Yet Stover and other health depart- ment officials say limited data is the
36 May 2021 FCW.COM
concerns while still using the technol- ogy to slow the virus’ spread.
“I think the privacy concern of indi- viduals is real,” he said. “It is a real issue and something we have to make sure we are getting right. I think we did do this right.”
Over the past year, 24 states and Washington, D.C., have spent millions of dollars developing and promoting the Apple and Google-based contact tracing apps or systems. The tech giants made the basic platform free, but states have spent anywhere from $9,600 in North Dakota to $3 million in Washington state on app develop- ment and marketing.
More than 28 million people in the United States have downloaded the mobile apps or activated exposure notifications on their smartphones. The systems use Bluetooth tech- nology and are both voluntary and anonymous.
Critics say the technology has overemphasized privacy at the cost of usefulness.
“I have yet to see any convinc-
it,” said Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor, in an interview with Stateline. Calo has written critically about the apps for months and testified in front of a con- gressional committee last April. “A lot of money, a lot of attention, a lot of oxygen has gone into developing this app. That time and money should have been put other places,” such as testing and manual contact tracing.
The states that haven’t gone the route of digital contact tracing cite a range of reasons, from privacy con- cerns to a preference for manual con- tact tracing.
Still, even as the COVID-19 vac- cine supply ramps up, the number of cases drops and states begin loos- ening restrictions, a few states have recently launched or are still planning to launch contact tracing apps.
State officials and experts argue that such systems add to their toolkits. They say the apps help reach younger people and provide an alternative for those skeptical of traditional contact tracing, which relies heavily on public