Colorado Developer's Launch Of 'SocialSmart' Contact Tracing App Delayed
DENVER (CBS4) - As contact tracing apps begin to take hold across the county and the world, a Colorado developer is hoping to help some counties or even the entire state fight COVID-19.
"We're trying to create an opportunity for all past contacts of that person to be notified that they've been in contact with someone who has tested positive," said Stephen Shapiro with the app SocialSmart.
Contact tracing apps use either Bluetooth technology or global positioning data to tell who has been where and when. Apps can alert people if they've been in a proximity, down to just a few feet, of someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.
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Shapiro says he and his partner Dan Gish, were ready to launch SocialSmart three weeks ago. Contact tracing apps are having trouble reaching the app stores because they first must be approved by a government or healthcare entity. The Shapiro says his team has been talking with Colorado officials but a decision hasn't been made.
"It's obviously frustrating for us because we've been ready but look these are big organizations and they need time to assess their options and there are a lot of options out there," he said.
Utah launched a symptom-tracker and contact tracing app on April 22. Shapiro says while the apps can help immediately, a delayed implementation of an app has allowed for more time to fine tune and correct mistakes.
"There's been problems with other functional sites, for example, Bluetooth tracing has historically required the app to actually be open. So you can't look at photos or make phone calls while also trying to do contact tracing. The state's real goal is understanding the right technology mix to address the problem while adhering to privacy concerns," Shapiro said.
There's been app development issues all over the globe with Apple and Google platforms not working well with each other. Contact tracing apps need at least 40 to 60 percent of the population to have and use the app to be affective.
"Our goal here is to get people out of the house. We're responding incredibly quickly when a hotspot appears," Shapiro said. "There's privacy concerns which we take very seriously, there's the question of supporting the app and scalability and what to do with the data."
Shapiro believes a Colorado-sponsored app could make its way onto people's phones by the middle of May.
"You have to get it right. Once you deploy an app, and the app is wrong, how are you going to get the next app in there and successfully installed, you've lost the confidence."
