How often are you getting COVID 19 app alerts?

[TingeOfTheGinge]

I didn't get any at first, having downloaded the app as soon as it came out, but I spent a night away in a city, went in a few places while there earlier this week. Since returning home I'm getting loads of alerts!

I just wondered how many alerts other people are seeing?

beachedwhales
It really should have been called 'Protect and Survive’
once in a lifetime....

@StealthPolarBear

It's just flashed up now but by the time I slide down to see what it says, it's gone. Op I don't understand what you mean?

How it works is by constantly pinging out low-level Bluetooth things, which are registered by all phones that have it in the nearby vicinity. This data is not accessed by anybody at any point – unless you come into contact with somebody who later test positive. At that point all the codes that that phone logged are then checked by the central system. You get a notification on your phone when the central system access's your phone because of that.

So getting a notification means that someone who you were relatively nearby to has since tested positive, and so the central system has checked your phone to see if you were too near or for too long. Therefore assessing your risk level. If you're high risk it will tell you to isolate.

I was going to post about this! I had a notification from the COVID app but didn’t see what it said. I tried to view it again but it had gone and I couldn’t get it back 🤷🏽‍♀️.

I thought it was to tell me I’d been in ‘close contact’ with someone who also has the app?? I think it was the Tesco delivery driver as it came through just after he’d been,

This article is the best description I've seen of how it works. Explaining about how it tracks exposure.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/nhs-covid-19-app-possible-exposure-coronavirus-notification-b674778.html%3famp

@Gibbonsgibbonsgibbons

beachedwhales It really should have been called 'Protect and Survive’ once in a lifetime....

you live and learn

(yes, I know it should be love)

Thanks, that explains it more clearly.

Do you get an ID when you sign up to the app (I haven't yet), so that they can connect your phone to your test?

@Dancingwithdaftness

Do you get an ID when you sign up to the app (I haven't yet), so that they can connect your phone to your test?

I don't actually know how the test information is linked.

I don't think that's what my little quick pings are about though. The last one I had twenty mins or so was in the house.

And yes mine was as I got a delivery, literally as the guy put the confirmation through the door

Seems like a pointless app then if it alerts you for no reason? What are you supposed to do when you're alerted?

Yes exactly my point. The first time this thing flashed up I sprang into action - but didn't know what to do

You don't get the alert at the time you meet the person, because they haven't tested positive then! You get the alert later when they are going through the contacts on the phone of the people who tested positive. So me getting pings now is from people that have tested positive over the last few days since I bumped into them.

Okay, so using the delivery man as an example-

You have a delivery on Monday, delivery man comes to your door, and goes away pretty quickly. Later that night he starts feeling poorly, he has a test the next day, the results come through on Wednesday. Turns out he is positive, so his app is then read by the central database, and all the codes that had been transmitted to his are read by them. All the phones that relate to those codes are then checked by the central database, to see if they were in close enough proximity to him for long enough to be at high risk of having caught it from him. This is when you get the message to say that your phone has been checked.

It is likely that the person he sat down with at lunchtime for half an hour is at high risk, and his family at home, but it is unlikely that any of the people he delivered to were close enough to him for long enough to be high risk.

So only those few people get the instruction to isolate as a follow-up to the initial notification which is just letting you know that your app was accessed.

Yes exactly my point. The first time this thing flashed up I sprang into action Lol. Actually chuckling. I have a vision of you on high alert, wide eyed, armed and dangerous with Dettol and soap wondering where or who to hit. I have no intention of getting this app thing yet. Yet.

With you. Thanks for the explanation

@StealthPolarBear

With you. Thanks for the explanation

I like to understand. My area of expertise is very heavily research based so I guess it's ingrained in me!