As the time goes by, the spread of the coronavirus decrease. However, there still people out there that are consider carriers. Meaning that they have the coronavirus in they’re bodies. You won’t be able to detect them because they don’t present any symptoms. Therefore, you’ll have to be extra careful about being close to people. Researchers at MIT and allied universities hope the mobile app Bluetooth abilities can let you know if you’ve been near to a person infected with COVID-19.

PACT

Privet Automated Contact Tracing for it’s acronym PACT it’s designated to let people figure out if they’ve been near to others who’ve caught COVID-19. If you’ve tested positive, you can use the app to voluntarily upload such information. With the purpose of letting others know you had it so they ca keep distance. And if you didn’t tested positive, the app will let you know who had, that way you can keep your distance. PACT will not share your identity such as phone number, name with anyone, including the government. The app also doesn’t record your location.

The big challenge

Getting people to use the app. Without a critical mass of users, PACT won’t provide enough information about the spread of the disease to be useful. The app could also “cause a false fear” in people if it tells them they might have been in contact with an infected person. Another barrier could be fake profiles, making fake data, which will not work at all. Taking the developers to create a security verification step in order to confirm the identity of each person.

How the app works?

Works by broadcasting a random, frequently changing ID number over Bluetooth and listening to others’ IDs. You can upload your history of ID numbers to a central server. Or if you want to check whether you might have been exposed, the app can check if your contact history includes any ID numbers from infected people. Something to sense if you’re within 6 feet of someone for more than 10 minutes. Bluetooth can do that.

For more information visit: Bluetooth signals from your smartphone could automate Covid-19 contact tracing while preserving privacy

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