Utah will officially launch a COVID-19 contact tracing system today. According to the state’s health department, it’s built on Apple and Google’s exposure notification API.
The tech is good. It anonymizes your identity, but notifies you if you’ve been in close contact with a phone belonging to someone who has tested positive for COVID in the past 14 days.
Compliance is all voluntary, so in practice, it’s not going to work. People just won’t use it. Which raises the questions, “What would you use?” and “What should you use?”
If you’re trying to figure out how to bring your employees back to work, or if you want to have an event, would contact tracing or a vaccine passport be helpful? Of course it would. Is there any way that people can be convinced to voluntarily use apps designed to separate them into safe and unsafe categories?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.