As part of its relaunch strategy to reopen the economy, the Government of Alberta has launched a voluntary, secure mobile contact tracing application to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Quick tracing and containment of outbreaks is critical as the province works to gradually relaunch the economy. The ABTraceTogether app will enhance the current manual tracing process and help Albertans protect themselves and their loved ones.
“ABTraceTogether was designed to help protect Albertans and prevent community spread by quickly alerting people who may be at risk. The more Albertans who use it, the better we will be able to protect individuals from being unknowingly exposed and possibly spreading the disease. By working together, we can tackle this pandemic,” says Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health.
Contact tracing is currently performed by interviewing patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, which is resource intensive and has limitations on its effectiveness as it relies on the patient’s memory.
Through wireless Bluetooth technology, mobile contact tracing will complement the work of health-care workers and drastically speed up the current manual tracing process. This means Albertans will be contacted more quickly if they are at risk.
Protecting Albertans’ privacy is paramount. Use of the app is voluntary, and users must opt-in. Only phone numbers are collected at the time of registering the app. The application does not track the user’s location and does not use GPS. Data is only stored on the user’s phone in an encrypted format for 21 days only.
Users must consent to sharing their data if they have tested positive for COVID-19. The only information shared with contact tracers is a random ID of those identified as close contacts after a user is diagnosed with COVID-19 – nothing identifiable is exchanged between phones. Users must be within two metres from each other for a total duration of 15 minutes in a 24-hour period in order to be notified as a close contact.
The app is now available to download for free from the App Store and Google Play.
