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Wonder if it has support for watchos 7 and paves the way for the rumoured apple watch announcement next week
 
So it seems that you can't enable Exposure Notifications without the companion COVID19 Exposure App installed. I just tried enabling the Exposure Notifications and select Arizona this time which told me I had to download the Arizona COVID App. Now I understand why it was asking me what region and state as I could have it enabled for various states.
 
Nobody gets notified about the identity of who was exposed to the known case. Your iPhone is simply reading the list of tokens that have declared a positive case. If any of those tokens with COVID match the tokens you came across, your phone alerts you. It's such a simple and elegant solution to maintain privacy while also letting millions of people know that they might've been exposed.
But if I download and sign into my local Covid App using an account my personal details and then the App uses the API, if I am found exposed then the App will know right? And the App knows who I am because i would have used my phone number or email at minimum to sign up if not more details...?


Also why even need an APP in the first place? If Apple could make the API why didn’t they just add an opt in feature built into the phone that sends you an ordinary notification if you are exposed... why the app If not for information data harvesting?
 
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Can someone explain to me, why one supposedly needs state approval to use such a warning app? I really don't get it. This roll out would have been *much* quicker and smoother (think more effective), had Apple & Google rolled out the entire app stack. I previously suspected the reason to require an extra app was to spread responsibilty, in case something goes wrong (medical data is a legal minefield). But as apparently countries can opt into some default app, that explanation no longer makes sense.
 
Not with a ten foot pole.

Downloading iOS versions with this tracking is agreeing to Tyranny. 13.4.1 forever.

A location tracking device, audio and text spying, social control and modification - are you getting it yet? A location tracking device, audio and text spying, social control and modification - it's not 3 devices, it's one
Funny that most people had already given location access to many apps for years while none of the national exposure notification apps even have the option to share your location with them.
 
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Could someone clarify some privacy elements of this exposure notification. When I am notified that I have been exposed to someone who is positive, is anyone else notified or is it my personal information to act on? In other words, when I find this out, do the authorities also find out that I have been exposed? Or Only me? This is the major reason why I am not getting involved in this program yet but perhaps if someone could clear things up I may have things wrong?
It is your personal information to act on. Ideally you would try to get a test ASAP and self-isolate until you get a result back. Once you take a test, authorities of course will be informed if that test comes back positive. But that is between the lab/hospital/doctor and the authorities, the app is just there to inform you.
 
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Padding the OS with yet another built in app that when it needs to be updated, two billion people will
Invariably download another 2GB update whether they're interested in the app or not.
There's got to be a better way to do it than tying all the Apple apps into the OS.
There's gotta be a better way to do it than expecting people to actually read articles they're commenting on, because they'll never do that.
 
Can someone explain to me, why one supposedly needs state approval to use such a warning app? I really don't get it. This roll out would have been *much* quicker and smoother (think more effective), had Apple & Google rolled out the entire app stack. I previously suspected the reason to require an extra app was to spread responsibilty, in case something goes wrong (medical data is a legal minefield). But as apparently countries can opt into some default app, that explanation no longer makes sense.
You don’t need state approval to use it. If your state — or, presumably one to which you have traveled, but I don’t know how they handle that — doesn’t provide the data to drive it, there’s not much point.
 
But if I download and sign into my local Covid App using an account my personal details and then the App uses the API, if I am found exposed then the App will know right? And the App knows who I am because i would have used my phone number or email at minimum to sign up if not more details...?
There is no sign-in functionality in the local apps. The local apps largely serve the purpose that somebody with a positive test result can enter that information to let the phone/app upload all random identifiers created by that phone/app. Unless you test positive, the app and the API are just generating random identifiers and exchanging those with other phones. But those random identifiers never leave the phone until somebody tests positive AND decides to share those random identifiers.

Also why even need an APP in the first place? If Apple could make the API why didn’t they just add an opt in feature built into the phone that sends you an ordinary notification if you are exposed... why the app If not for information data harvesting?
There are two steps:
1) That would require Apple/Google interfacing with the local labs such that a user can enter a positive test result and the phone will ’contact’ the lab (or a national clearing house that interfaces with the labs) to verify with them that this was indeed a real test result and not somebody spamming the system.
2) The phone will need to contact the national/state database of random identifiers of people who have tested positive (and chosen to report this via step 1). I doubt Apple or Google would want to host that database themselves.

The second part could probably achieved easily enough without an app. Apple/Google just need to ‘hard‘-code the server address for each participating country/state and make sure that the server and the phone know how to talk to each other.
 
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It isn't the functionality rather what States will do with it.
Here in California the government has a habit of leaking / selling / "other using" information it gets from users.
If this was an Apple/Google only thing, anon-ed, it could be of some help.

An example of what could go wrong ...
The government can only leak whatever the API is handing over to the app. And there are only two things it does hand over:
1) The tokens created on your phone and the app is only supposed to send them once you agree to share them after a positive test (and the open-source apps will need to follow this rule as it would become public if they didn’t)
2) The information that you have been exposed and I think also what day that happened

And the apps themselves also don’t get any access to all the things you can prevent apps to get access to in the iOS privacy settings. Sure they could try tricks like sending pings out to glean information about you. But again, the open source apps cannot do this without risking getting caught, and even the closed-source apps would run reputation risks trying to do so.
 
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Not very useful for me right now. The other thing I thought was odd, when I tried to turn enable it, it needed to have me tell it where I was (region and state). I have location services turned on, why couldn’t it figure out where I was located based on location services.

View attachment 949420
Maybe it wants to be sure what your ‘home state’ is (where you would get tested and where you currently live), which could be different from your location when you set this up.
 
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So it seems that you can't enable Exposure Notifications without the companion COVID19 Exposure App installed. I just tried enabling the Exposure Notifications and select Arizona this time which told me I had to download the Arizona COVID App. Now I understand why it was asking me what region and state as I could have it enabled for various states.
There currently are three kind of states in the U.S.:
1) States with a (compatible) COVID app
2) States that use the new system implemented in 13.7
3) States that participate in neither of them

If you are in a category 1 state, you need to download the corresponding app. If you are in a category 2 state, you can enable the system without downloading an app. If you are in a category 3 state, there is nothing you can do at the moment.
 
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1F7E53CC-6DC8-44AE-8B49-EF4AC8A84305.png


Nice new screen in Settings. You can also enable exposure notifications for multiple regions too.
 
There currently are three kind of states in the U.S.:
1) States with a (compatible) COVID app
2) States that use the new system implemented in 13.7
3) States that participate in neither of them

If you are in a category 1 state, you need to download the corresponding app. If you are in a category 2 state, you can enable the system without downloading an app. If you are in a category 3 state, there is nothing you can do at the moment.

I counted that there are only 12 states that are currently implemented the COVID 19 notifications right now.
 
@Username32123 Only you get the notification since your exposure to the positive user is stored locally. That information is yours to do with.

You also won't know who tested positive or where the exposure happened, but at least you can take measures to mitigate your spread and get tested right away.

I question what the OP will do with a potential exposure based on the "do the authorities also find out" question.
 
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It isn't the functionality rather what States will do with it.
Here in California the government has a habit of leaking / selling / "other using" information it gets from users.
If this was an Apple/Google only thing, anon-ed, it could be of some help.

An example of what could go wrong ...
ND went their own direction and didn’t use the Apple/Google API

This is where things go sideways, thanks for the heads up. Shame on ND as well as Apple/Google for approving this type of app that did not use the API
 
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