Covid Watch

Covid Watch[1]
FormationFebruary 19, 2020 (2020-02-19)[2]
FounderTina White[3]
Founded atStanford, CA
Typenonprofit
HeadquartersTucson, AZ
ProductsCOVID-19 app solution using GAEN or TCN Protocols
ServicesExposure Alerts
Executive Director
Tina White
Founder
James Petrie
Founder
Rhys Fenwick
Founder
Zsombor Szabo
Volunteers
200+ active
Websitewww.wehealth.org

Covid Watch was an open source nonprofit founded in February 2020 with the mission of building mobile technology to fight the COVID-19 pandemic while defending digital privacy.[4] The Covid Watch founders became concerned about emerging, mass surveillance-enabling digital contact tracing technology and started the project to help preserve civil liberties during the pandemic.[5][6][7]

Covid Watch[8] began as an independent research collaboration between students at Stanford University, United States and the University of Waterloo, Canada and it was the first team in the world to publish a white paper,[9] develop,[10][11] and open source[12] a fully anonymous Bluetooth exposure alert protocol - the CEN Protocol, later renamed the TCN Protocol - in collaboration with CoEpi in early March 2020.[13] This was followed by the rapid development of very similar decentralized protocols in early April 2020 like DP-3T, PACT,[14] and Google/Apple Exposure Notification.

The Covid Watch team had over 200 active volunteers from around the world including advisers in public health, epidemiology, privacy, policy, and law from universities like Stanford, Waterloo, UW, UCSF, and Berkeley.[4][15]

Covid Watch also built a fully open source mobile app for sending anonymous exposure alerts first using their own TCN Protocol in April 2020[16] and later using the nearly identical protocol within the Google/Apple exposure notification (GAEN) framework when the GAEN APIs were released in May 2020.[17][18] Also in May 2020, Covid Watch launched the first calibration and beta testing pilot of the GAEN APIs in the United States at the University of Arizona.[19][20]

In August 2020, the app launched publicly for a phased roll-out in the state of Arizona.[21][22][23] Covid Watch volunteers and staff also collaborated with the University of Arizona on research to improve the estimation of infection risk from anonymous Bluetooth data to better inform private quarantine recommendations.[24]

At the end of 2020, the Covid Watch nonprofit closed, but the Covid Watch app and related open source technologies continue to be implemented for public health departments by the WeHealth organization.[25]

  1. ^ "Covid Watch". Covid Watch. 2020-02-19. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  2. ^ "COVID-19 Risk Assessment App Idea for Vetting and Discussion". EA Forum. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  3. ^ "Tina White". Professional Website. Retrieved 2020-02-19.
  4. ^ a b "Covid Watch About Page". Covid Watch. 2020-06-02. Archived from the original on 2020-06-03. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  5. ^ University, Stanford (2020-04-09). "Stanford researchers help develop privacy-focused coronavirus alert app". Stanford News. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  6. ^ CSGF, DOE (2020-03-31). "Fellow Working to Devise COVID-19 Alert Application". DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  7. ^ Waterloo, University of (2020-04-20). "Coming into contact with COVID". Waterloo Stories. Retrieved 2020-04-20.
  8. ^ "Covid Watch". Covid Watch. 2020-03-20. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
  9. ^ "Covid Watch White Paper". Covid Watch. 2020-03-20. Archived from the original on 2021-10-15. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
  10. ^ "First implementation of anonymous exposure alert protocol". GitHub. Retrieved 2020-03-17.[dead link‍]
  11. ^ "Covid Watch iOS TCN Testflight App". Apple TestFlight. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  12. ^ "Covid Watch Github". Github. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  13. ^ "CoEpi website". CoEpi. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  14. ^ "The PACT protocol specification" (PDF). PACT MIT. 2020-04-08. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  15. ^ "Covid Watch Team Page". Covid Watch. 2020-06-02. Archived from the original on 2020-11-26. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  16. ^ "Covid Watch open source iOS TCN app". Github. 2020-03-17. Retrieved 2020-03-17.
  17. ^ "Covid Watch iOS G/A EN Github Repo". Github. 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  18. ^ "Covid Watch Github Repo". Github. 2020-03-07. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  19. ^ "UA testing app to trace COVID-19 cases on campus". KOLD News 13. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  20. ^ "Online apps likely to play a big role in rebooting UA campus for fall semester". Github. 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
  21. ^ "UArizona and Covid Watch Launch COVID-19 Exposure Notification App". University of Arizona News. 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  22. ^ "Covid Watch Arizona". App Store. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  23. ^ "Covid Watch Arizona - Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  24. ^ Wilson, Amanda M.; Aviles, Nathan; Petrie, James I.; Beamer, Paloma I.; Szabo, Zsombor; Xie, Michelle; McIllece, Janet; Chen, Yijie; Son, Young‐Jun; Halai, Sameer; White, Tina; Ernst, Kacey C.; Masel, Joanna (2021). "Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk within the Google/Apple Exposure Notification Framework to Inform Quarantine Recommendations". pp. 162–176. medRxiv 10.1101/2020.07.17.20156539v3.
  25. ^ "WeHealth". WeHealth. 2021-06-29. Retrieved 2021-06-29.