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RALEIGH, NC (AP) – Six months ago, Apple and Google introduced a new smartphone tool designed to notify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, without disclosing any personal information. But for the most part, Americans haven’t been very interested.
Less than half of U.S. states and territories – 18 in total – have made this technology widely available. And according to an analysis of Associated Press data, the vast majority of Americans in such places have not activated the tool.
Data from 16 states, Guam and the District of Columbia show 8.1 million people had used the technology as of the end of November. It is about one inhabitant in 14 of the 110 million inhabitants of these regions.
In theory, such apps could bolster one of the most difficult tasks in the fight against the pandemic: tracing contacts of people infected with the coronavirus in order to test and isolate them if necessary. In practice, however, widespread misinformation about COVID-19, the complexity of the technology, the overwhelmed health workers needed to quickly confirm a diagnosis and a general lack of awareness have all presented barriers, according to experts and users. .
“There’s a lot that works against this,” said Jessica Vitak, associate professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. “Unfortunately, in the United States, COVID has been much more politicized than in any other country. I think it affects people’s willingness to use tools to track it. “
Charlotte, North Carolina attorney Evan Metaxatos was thrilled to learn of his condition tracking app, called SlowCOVIDNC in November. He immediately downloaded it and made his parents and pregnant wife follow his example.
But they’re still outliers in the state, which launched the app in September with little fanfare. Of the state’s approximately 10.5 million residents, only 482,003 had it installed until the end of November.
“It won’t work very well until everyone is using it, but it’s better than nothing,” said Metaxatos.
Apple and Google co-created the main technology behind these apps, which use Bluetooth wireless signals to anonymously detect when two phones have spent time nearby. If an app user tests positive for the virus, that person’s phone can trigger a notification to other people they’ve spent time with nearby – without revealing names, locations, or any other identifying information.
In states like Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington, as well as Washington, DC, iPhone users don’t even need to download an app. In fact, Apple prompts users through pop-ups to activate the notification system by adjusting their phone settings.
In these states, adoption rates are significantly higher. But even in the most prosperous state of Connecticut, only about a fifth of all residents have opted for this follow-up. Washington said on Friday that more than one million residents of the state – about 13% of its population – had activated the technology in its first four days.
Virginia’s COVIDWISE app launched on August 5 and was the first to go live. Since then, less than one in ten residents have downloaded it, although the state estimates that almost 20% of Virginians aged 18 to 65 with smartphones have done so. Delaware app downloads make up about 7% of the state’s population.
All of the other U.S. states analyzed have much lower adoption rates.
New York launched its app on October 1. It recently passed one million downloads, which is about 5% of the population. New Jersey and Pennsylvania were used less, with a 4% download rate.
Adoption is even lower in Wyoming, North Dakota, Michigan, Nevada, and Alabama, with users making up only 1% to 3% of their state’s population. Links to apps and instructions for turning on iPhone notifications are usually available on state health service websites.
Irish app developer NearForm claims more than a quarter of the Irish population uses their COVID-19 app. It was more difficult to get such traction in the four US states where it has built similar apps: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
In Ireland, “all sides of the political divide have come together with a cohesive message on what we need to do,” said Larry Breen, Chief Commercial Officer of NearForm. “This debate continues to rage on your side of the pond.”
Elsewhere in Europe, adoption has been mixed. Germany and Great Britain have similar penetration rates to Ireland; in Finland, the figure is 45%, according to data compiled by the MIT Technology Review. In France, however, less than 4% of the population use the official COVID app, which eschews the Apple-Google approach for a more intrusive data collection system that raises privacy and technical issues.
Security experts praise the Apple-Google system for protecting user anonymity, but it has been a tough sell for many. U.S. users say partisanship, privacy concerns, and stigma surrounding COVID-19 have kept participation low. A lack of state and federal efforts to raise awareness has not helped.
There are also no technological and bureaucratic problems.
Lee McFarland, a loan officer from Grand Forks, North Dakota, was eager to download his condition’s Care19 Alert app, but said he couldn’t press the “Notify Others” button after contracted the virus in late October.
“If your test is positive, a public health official will call and verify your code,” said a message on the McFarland app. “This ensures that only verified positive COVID-19 people can send notifications.”
McFarland said he forgot to tell the health worker that he installed the app on his phone. He failed to follow up with the worker to get the necessary code and has since deleted the app.
Even when this process is working, however, many North Dakotans do not press the button to let others know.
Tim Brookins, CEO of app developer ProudCrowd, said 91 of North Dakota’s 14,000 active users had their “Notify Others” button activated after the state confirmed them as positive. Out of 91 users, only 29 pressed the button, resulting in 50 notifications.
Still, many users say they will keep the app in the hope that others will see its potential benefits.
“You can say pretty much anything that not a lot of people do this or that, but everyone who does something helps,” said David Waechter, a general contractor from Lenoir, North Carolina. “I think the United States could use a healthy dose of E pluribus unum and stop thinking about itself and start thinking about our compatriots.
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O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP reporter Kelvin Chan has contributed from London.
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Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson and O’Brien at https://twitter.com/mattoyeah.
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Anderson is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative corps. Report for America is a national, nonprofit service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on secret issues.
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