The GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App allows you to anonymously share a positive COVID-19 test result – and be anonymously notified of possible previous close contact with someone who later reports a positive COVID-19 test result – without sharing anyone’s identity. The app protects your privacy while giving you the power to protect the health of yourself, your family, and your community.

Download the GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App from the Apple Store or Google Play and open the app. Follow the directions within the app. You will need Bluetooth enabled on your device. When within six feet of others, phones exchange encrypted, anonymous codes via Bluetooth. If you test positive to COVID-19, you can send an anonymous notification to those with whom you came in close contact over the last 14 days. The notification they get from you is completely anonymous – they do not know from whom the notification came, the time, the location – only the date of the possible exposure. Please note the exposure date you receive may vary by up to one day in the current version of the app.

The GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App is a critical component to mitigating the spread of COVID-19. Technology is used to quickly and anonymously notify people who may have been exposed to a person who has tested positive for COVID-19, including and especially those the person might not know directly. 

The GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App puts information about your exposure to COVID-19 in the palm of your hand – without compromising your identity or the identity of those around you. The app offers public health authority guidance on what you should do if you have been exposed. This tool will be a vital part of creating a safer community while managing the risk of growing case numbers across the state. 

GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. 

No. The Alabama Exposure Notification App works on both devices, and codes are exchanged between both devices. You do, however, need a newer operating system. For Android, the app works on version 6.0 and above. For iOS, it works on version 13.5 and above, with 13.6 preferred. Those requirements are set by Apple and Google. You do not have to have a SIM card installed on your phone for the app to work, but you will only be able to receive exposure notifications. You will not be able to verify a positive test result without a SIM card. 

Yes. Once you download the app and opt in to the notification system, this tool will generate a random code for your device. To help make certain you can’t be identified, those random codes change every few minutes. 

Yes. The choice to use this tool rests with the you, and you can turn it off at any time by uninstalling the exposure notification app or turning off exposure notifications in your Settings.

The app is designed to have minimal effect on data and battery life by using Bluetooth low energy technology.

Click on “Update settings” on the home page of the app. Then click “Go to System Settings” and toggle off “COVID-19 Exposure Notifications” (iOS) or “Use Exposure Notifications” (Android). Turning this off means you will not allow for the exchange of anonymous codes with other phones — and therefore you will not receive exposure notifications for the period of time that this is off. You can turn the settings back on at any time.

GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App is not required but is strongly encouraged. Providing exposure notifications to users in your workplace, school, community, and state can quickly give them the information they need to quarantine or seek testing or treatment to beat COVID-19. You must be at least 14 years old to use the app.

Yes. This app not only helps your workplace/campus, but it also helps create a safer and healthier community around you. If you test positive, your public health department will reach out to you to conduct traditional contact tracing. To do this, they will ask you who you have had close contact with in the last 14 days. Some people you will know, others you will not. The GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App will anonymously notify the people who you know and those who you do not know. The more people who download and use the app, the more it can help mitigate the spread. 

Traditional contact tracing is conducted by experts at public health departments. Through phone calls, they ask you for the contact information of everywhere you have been and everyone with whom you have been in contact over the past 14-day period. They, in turn, contact all of those places and people to inquire about symptoms. Traditional contact tracing will continue and GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification app does not replace that. The app can, however, help anonymously notify those who you do not know or do not remember about possible exposure. It also anonymously notifies even people who you know and likely will do so sooner than notification from the public health department, thereby potentially markedly reducing exposure and spread.

The GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App protects your privacy while giving you the power to protect the health of yourself, your family, and your community. You control all data you want to share, and the decision to share it. GuideSafe Alabma Exposure Notification App does not collect identifying information such as your name, address, date of birth, contact information or specific location data.

This app uses Bluetooth scanning to detect if two devices are close to each other without revealing their location to one another. Bluetooth scanning needs the device location setting to be “on” to detect nearby devices that also have the GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification app turned on. Although the tool uses Bluetooth, it has been engineered to include two additional privacy features so it can’t be used to approximate a device’s location. The exposure notification system uses rotating Bluetooth beacons, instead of a stable identifier for the device, so the device can’t be tracked over time. Apps using this tool are also prohibited from requesting the device location permission. Devices using Apple iOS do not use location settings.

The GuideSafe Alabma Exposure Notification App uses Apple and Google’s Exposure Notification API which is anonymous and doesn’t collect your data such as name, telephone number and your specific location. This system prioritizes the health and safety of our community without compromising our personal privacy. This allows public health officials to share information about exposures and offer guidance to slow the spread of COVID-19 without invading your privacy. This app is not tracing or tracking you; it is anonymously notifying you and your community of potential exposures so you can act quickly and effectively to stop the spread.

State health departments that choose to receive data from the GuideSafe Alabama Exposure Notification App will not have access to data from the app other than the aggregate data of how many people download the app and how many app users are verified positive.

When you report a positive test in the app, you receive a code via your cell phone to input into the app. From that phone number, the system creates a hash, which is a one-way cryptographic method for being able to store information without storing the actual data that created the hash – in this case the phone number. So, in this case, the system stores the hash in “escrow” or a holding container for later potential matching with an identical hash created from a positive lab reported test to your state health department. 

The anonymous verification process protects against someone falsifying a positive test result. The exposure notification app will only notify others if the report is verified. A report is only verified if a physician or lab submits a report to your state health department. 

During testing, if a non-cell number is provided for public health department contact tracers to call, then a cell number can be provided later during the public health department investigation and public health department contact tracing process. Those cell phone numbers will be added to the verification process. If no cell number is ever provided during testing or during the public health department contact tracing process, then the verification process will not work. 

There is automatic reporting of test results from the lab or physician’s office to participating state health departments. However, for the exposure notification app to work properly, the user also needs to report their positive test to their state health department, if they participating, through the app. 

After your report a positive test, please return to Healthcheck, through the app, and complete Healthcheck again. If you have already done Healthcheck today, please do it again tomorrow morning.