When someone tests positive for an infectious disease, health authorities interview them to determine their recent whereabouts and who they may have been in contact with.
These people are notified and advised to get tested, monitor their symptoms, and self-isolate to prevent further spread of the disease.
Contact tracing often involves using digital tools, such as apps, to help track and identify potential contacts.
Using this information, contact tracers identify people who may have been exposed to the virus and are therefore at risk of infection.
While contact tracing may feel cold and impersonal to some, it’s meant to ensure ultimate privacy & data security.
Instead of actual phone numbers or names, the encrypted data of your phone is logged into the contact tracing system.
Intimate personal details are kept anonymous and logged only as a series of numbers and letters.
The code scrapes inventory of who you have been in contact with over the last 30 days.
It makes connections based on proximity to these other cellular devices and networks and starts to create a visual map of its own.
Only if you’ve tested positive and activated your contact tracing network will other users be notified.