Privacy Concerns Ensue After Implementation of Contact Tracing App

By  Tucker Gibbs

As mandated by the Student Guidebook, the Academy required students yesterday morning to download a contact tracing application known as SaferME. SaferME will be used to identify close contacts of students who tested positive for COVID-19.

The app, founded in Sweden in 2015, aids businesses and governments in worker contact tracing and hazard notification. This application was chosen to be used by the Academy due to its combined bluetooth and GPS system, in addition to its privacy features.

Contact tracing is the process of identifying close contacts of someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, in the hopes of preventing the virus from being spread further. 

According to the developer, SaferME uses a combination of manual and bluetooth contact logging systems to provide a full picture of a user’s contacts. When a student passes within 6 feet of another student, it is shown on Administrator terminals that those two students were in contact. The app also shows distance between the contacts and the time they were in contact.

Some students feel reluctant to use the app and believe that its GPS tracking is a breach of privacy. “I don’t enjoy the administration and their ability to track our location, because I feel like it’s a violation of privacy,” prep Juno Cowans said. “We have seen some problems with this kind of data being abused with big tech companies before. We don’t know where this data is going.”

To combat this concern, the Information Technology department, in conjunction with the Dean of Students office, chose SaferME due to its privacy features. “We selected SaferME because it’s automated contact tracing system doesn’t store or process any medical information,” Director of Information Technology Scott Heffner said. “[It also] doesn’t show any time of day or location data for our users which might be considered an invasion of their privacy.”

Other students, however, feel the app will help prevent COVID-19 from spreading. “I’m excited about this contact tracing app, as long as it doesn’t track us too much,” lower Michael Goodall said. “It will just be better than chasing [students] down with emails.”

Upper Garrett Paik concluded, “It’s a little weird having it running in the background 24/7, but I assume [the Academy] will use it for if someone contracts COVID,” he said. “But I know it’s for community health reasons so I am OK with it.”

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