Alberta is debuting a new contract tracing app residents can opt into and install on their phones.
On Friday afternoon, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw announced the debut of the ABTraceTogether app.
"ABTraceTogether app is a voluntary, secure mobile contact tracing application that can help prevent the spread of COVID-19. You only need to download the app and provide your mobile phone number to register,” Hinshaw said.
The app is now available in the Google and Apple app stores.
Hinshaw said contact tracers are currently working hard behind the scenes doing COVID-19 detective work, asking patients everywhere they have been in the past several days and who they were near. Their contacts are then called to find out if they are sick and to make sure they stay home for 14 days from the last exposure, even if they are feeling well.
“This is a vital step in preventing further spread of the virus,” Hinshaw said.
“It is also time-consuming and resource-intensive, relying on each individual's ability to recollect who they may have come into contact with and then follow up with each of those individuals in order to be successful.”
If a contact tests positive for COVID-19, they become a case, and the contact tracing process starts again.
Contact tracing partnered with testing can help reduce the transmission and spread of the disease, Hinshaw said.
“The faster Alberta Health Services contact tracers can inform exposed people or close contacts, the quicker we will be able to prevent potential outbreaks and identify when Albertans must self-isolate,” Hinshaw said.
The app will help AHS track how the disease is spread and what underlying factors contribute to severe cases of the virus, and is expected to make contact tracing a more rapid process.
It tracks when two phones who each have the app get within two meters of each other for an overall total of 15 minutes in a 24-hour time period. If someone with the app tests positive for COVID-19, they will be asked to allow contact tracers to use the information to further enhance manual tracing and allow other app users to be informed if they have been potentially exposed.Hinshaw said when app users who may have been exposed are contacted, the user identities will not be shared. Users will just be informed they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Previously, AHS was restricted by a patient’s memory of their interactions and could not contact people if the patient didn’t know the identities of the people they had been around.
Hinshaw said the use of the app is voluntary, and users must opt-in. Only your phone number is collected at the time of registering the app. The application does not track the user’s location and does not use your GPS. Data is stored on the user’s phone in an encrypted format for 21 days. Users must consent to sharing their data if they have tested positive for COVID-19.
Alberta's information and privacy commissioner Jill Clayton said in a statement she supports efforts by Alberta Health to try to enhance contact tracing processes to respond to COVID-19.
“We have seen several technological ways to supplement contact tracing worldwide, some of which are more invasive than others. In my view, Alberta Health has chosen a less intrusive approach in deploying this app, while continuing to rely on the human expertise required for effective contact tracing. A technological approach alone is not a panacea,” Clayton said.
“Ensuring this app is voluntary, collects minimal information, uses decentralized storage of de-identified Bluetooth contact logs, and allows individuals to control their use of the app are positive components. People diagnosed with COVID-19 also decide whether to disclose to public health officials the contact log stored on their phone.”
Clayton said her office received a privacy impact assessment on the app earlier this week. An initial review has been undertaken and they have sent questions to Alberta Health to clarify certain aspects of the PIA.
The commissioner said she is seeking confirmation that the data collected through this app is to be used for contact tracing and not for any other purpose.
“To complement the good work of public health officials in disclosing information about the pandemic, I appreciate that Alberta Health has committed to publishing a summary of its PIA. We have seen similar steps taken in other jurisdictions to promote accountability and transparency, and to build public trust.”
Clayton's office will monitor the implementation of the app and any person concerned about how their personal health information is collected, used or disclosed may submit a complaint to the office.
