DC CAN is the official COVID-19 exposure-notifications software for the District of Columbia in partnership with the Department of Health (DC Health). This app is an example of Exposure Notifications Express platform, developed by Apple and Google. It was configured by DC Health.
DC CAN can be used anonymously by you to alert DC residents who have been in close proximity to someone with a positive diagnosis of COVID-19. You are helping to slow down the spread of COVID-19 by enabling DC CAN.
How DC CAN Work:
Devices with DC CAN can exchange random identifiers via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) when they are in close proximity. If someone reports to their app that they have tested positive for COVID-19 they will receive an alert indicating that they might have been exposed. The Exposure Notification system records the signal strength and date stamps the random identifiers that are received by a device. The other user will be notified if the exposure occurred within a time period of at least 15 minutes.
The background running of Exposure Notifications frameworks from Google and Apple is even allowed when DC CAN app closes. It won’t drain your device battery as fast as other apps that use Bluetooth or are open and running continuously.
How DC CAN Protect Your Privacy
DC Health is committed to protecting your privacy and confidentiality. Apple’s and Google’s frameworks are designed to prevent any personal data or location information being correlated with random identifiers exchanged by devices. DC Health doesn’t need to know who or whereabouts you are in order to operate DC CAN. Your device’s BLE can exchange random identifiers if you are within close proximity to another app user.
DC Health receives the laboratory results of all people who have tested positive for COVID-19. This information is not related to the app. Based on the laboratory report, our staff will follow up with positive persons. DC Health will verify positive results and provide a personal identifying code (PIN) to DC CAN users as a courtesy. To report a positive result, you must use this PIN. This will prevent people from reporting false positive results that could lead to false exposure notifications. DC Health wants app users to be confident that any COVID-19 exposures received via the app are real events.
Exposure notifications are now available on devices running the latest Apple or Google operating systems. This function cannot be enabled until you have downloaded the Washington’s DCCAN app. Apple and Google will remove the exposure notification tool tools from their respective operating system once the pandemic has ended.
We are grateful for DC CAN’s installation! We can all work together to protect our families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and keep DC moving ahead!
