Coronavirus pandemic
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Consumer Tech

I downloaded America’s first coronavirus exposure app. You should too.

Bluetooth ‘exposure-notification’ apps such as Virginia’s Covidwise aren’t much of a privacy risk. But we won’t know if they’re useful until many more people try them.

Review by
August 18, 2020 at 4:53 p.m. EDT
COVIDWISE uses Bluetooth signals to determine if you might have come into contact with a person who tests positive for the novel coronavirus. (Video: Jonathan Baran/The Washington Post)

I often use this column to warn about the dangers of apps that track you. This time, I’m going to recommend you actually install one.

There’s a new kind of app that uses your smartphone’s Bluetooth wireless signals to figure out when you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It pops up the world’s most stressful-yet-helpful notification: “You have likely been exposed.”