The big problem with the Apple/Google contact tracing tech: it measures proximity, not exposure. If you read the specs, the tech is designed to alert if you have spent 30+ min within x feet of a person who self-reports #COVID19 infection.

That’s not how this virus transmits! Also, there are logistical problems.

A subway ride uptown in NYC takes 30+ minutes and 1/3 of the car is close. If someone across the subway car from me comes up positive, I’ll get a quarantine alert. So will everyone else in the car. That, over the course of a week, will bring the city to a halt again

Also, the people making contact tracing apps are not magical. They are at home, terrified, working without adequate childcare like the rest of us. Nobody is doing their best work in these circumstances. Contact tracing tech hastily assembled will not be good tech.

So: contact tracing is good and necessary to flatten the curve. But don’t expect an app to be the magic bullet. Especially not the current Apple/Google app as designed. #technochauvinism

For why a human-in-the-loop framework is important for contact tracing, check out this piece by @marylgray et al: https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/493648-how-human-centered-technology-can-beat-covid-19-through-contact-tracing

For more on the privacy implications of contact tracing apps, read @JuliaAngwin in @themarkup: https://themarkup.org/ask-the-markup/2020/04/14/will-googles-and-apples-covid-tracking-plan-protect-privacy

Think of your own scenarios where digital contact tracing apps might fail. Let’s say I live in an apt building and share a wall with someone who come up positive. If we both charge our phones against the shared wall, we will show up as having been in “close contact.” (Not)