My smartphone is too big to carry comfortably and safely. I use my computer much more but the smartphone can be convenient sometimes. It is actually a small computer, after all. I was surprised to find that a
government agency offers me a chance to use that smartphone to join a network/database to try to know if I have been physically close to someone who has the covid virus. I think the idea is that I should turn on my phone's Bluetooth capabilities and then software will note if my Bluetooth is in proximity to someone's phone who is known to have been exposed to Covid.
Getting another app on my phone involved demands for numbers and information that amounted to a complicated series of steps. There seemed to be enough time delay and confusions that I didn't want to get involved in such a network. It could be helpful but it seems to me that it could also involve mistakes, screw-ups and errors, both human and mechanical.
I can imagine some people seeing a quietly working network attempting to track exposures as George Orwell's "1984" at work. I would indeed like to avoid getting sick or getting others sick. I am reading "A Planet of Viruses" by Carl Zimmer and it is surprising how the little bits get involved in so many aspects of life. They are not all bad and they are not all good.
