November 16, 2020
Beginning today, UC Santa Barbara is joining other UC campuses in a pilot of California COVID Notify, California’s new, voluntary, smartphone exposure notification system (ENS). California COVID Notify is a joint effort of the University of California and the State of California, with the goal of helping mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
California COVID Notify uses the ENS from Google and Apple to quickly notify users if they’ve likely been exposed to COVID-19, allowing them to seek medical attention and reduce the risk of exposure for friends, family and the broader campus community.
How It Works
Once you opt in to the notification system, California COVID Notify assigns your phone a random identification number (ID). This random ID changes every 10-20 minutes, so it cannot be used to identify you personally or your location. Your phone will exchange random IDs and log a close interaction with Bluetooth-enabled devices of other notification system users when your phones come within six feet of each other for 15 minutes or more within a day. If a user of the notification system subsequently receives a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, that individual can enter a key code that will in turn generate anonymous alerts to other users based on their respective exposures to that individual.
Your Privacy Matters
California COVID Notify employs a privacy-first approach. Users have the option of sharing a verified positive test result with California COVID Notify, and then choosing whether they want to share that result with other users. Location information is never collected, and user identities are strictly confidential. Neither Apple nor Google has access to user identity information. Click here to learn more about how your privacy is protected.
How to Participate
Click the button below and follow the instructions to add California COVID Notify to your iOS or Android device.
