WASHINGTON - Apple and Google released software today that mobile-app developers can use to create contact-tracing apps for state and national governments. States have already poured millions of dollars into paying armies of public health workers to try to manually track the contacts of people who test positive for COVID.

A recent Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found that nearly 60 percent of Americans said they couldn’t or wouldn’t use apps designed using Apple's and Google's technology. With public wariness about surveillance high, the effectiveness of the apps seems likely to be limited.This type of technology hasn’t been used before, at least not for this purpose and at this scale, so it’s unproven to say the least. If it does work, it has the potential to slow the spread of the disease.

Apple and Google have been very firm about not gathering location data despite requests from states who think that’ll give them a better picture.

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