A leading company focused on virtual transformation.
By Kelsey Johnson
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada on Friday introduced a national contact search application to tell Canadians when they might have been exposed to coronavirus, as a component of a broader effort to engage the virus as companies and public spaces reopen across the country.
The government used the Shopify Inc. code and worked with Blackberry Inc on application security. The generation evolved with Apple Inc and Google from Alphabet Inc.
Canada reported 115,799 cases of COVID-19 and 8,929 deaths on Thursday. Regions of the country eased restrictions as the spread slowed.
The app was first announced in May and is scheduled for launch in early July in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. The schedule of additional tests has been delayed.
Authorities said Friday that while the app will be available without delay for national download, it will only be fully functional in Ontario at first.
The government is ending talks with the provinces and expects the implementation to be fully compatible across the country in the coming days.
The app uses Bluetooth to send random codes between phones and can insinuate and touch other people who have been exposed, who then inform the app that they tested positive for COVID-19. Critics said they feared the app would violate civil liberties and privacy.
Officials noted that the app will not use GPS or location and will have no way of knowing an individual’s non-public information.
(Additional report through Julie Gordon; Edited through David Gregorio)