Viral chain message claiming COVID-19 apps can track phone contacts without their consent is misleading

A viral chain message circulating on multiple social media platforms claims two COVID-19 contact tracing apps — Healthy Together and Trace Together — can gain access to a person’s phone contacts when downloaded and then track those contacts without their consent.

“I understand that many people will be downloading the COVID19 app. However, if I am one of your ‘contacts’ and you intend on installing the app, ‘Healthy Together’-- ‘Trace Together’ -- or any similar tracing app, I am respectfully asking you to DELETE ME from your phone contact list, Facebook and Instagram pages PRIOR to installing the app on your Smartphone! The app WILL ask for permission to access your contact list, But NO ONE has my consent to use my name, phone number or any other identifying contact info in connection with these tracking apps which will identify me and locate me without my knowledge or permission. I resist this tracking. THIS IS A PRIVACY ISSUE NOT A VIRUS ISSUE. THANK YOU. Copied and you should too,” the viral chain message says.

VERIFY reader Nancy emailed our team asking if the chain message’s claims are true.

THE QUESTION

Can the Healthy Together and TraceTogether apps track phone contacts without their consent?

THE SOURCES

• Healthy Together
• Government of Singapore
• Smart Nation Singapore
• ABTraceTogether
• Government of Alberta
• Alberta Health Services

THE ANSWER

The chain message’s claims are misleading. The Healthy Together and TraceTogether apps, which were both once used for contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic, cannot track a person’s phone contacts without their consent.

WHAT WE FOUND

The Healthy Together and TraceTogether apps cannot gain access to a person’s phone contacts and then track those contacts without their consent. Neither app is being used for COVID-19 contact tracing in 2024, and they were never capable of tracking people in a person’s contact list even when granted permission to access their information.

In March 2020, the Government of Singapore launched the TraceTogether app to help facilitate contact tracing efforts in the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who have recently been in contact with someone diagnosed with an infectious disease, like COVID-19.

But the TraceTogether app was never available to people in the U.S. and was discontinued in February 2024.

VERIFY previously found that nearly the same exact chain message was being shared widely on Facebook in May 2020. But that version of the chain message claimed that another app named ABTraceTogether was tracking people’s phone contacts along with the Healthy Together app.

ABTraceTogether was launched in May 2020 by the Government of Alberta, Canada. It was only available to download in the Canadian province of Alberta — not the U.S. The app was decommissioned in June 2022, according to Alberta Health Services.

Meanwhile, the Healthy Together app was a contact tracing tool used by public health departments in Utah, Florida and Oklahoma during the COVID-19 public health emergency, which expired on May 11, 2023.

In an email, a Healthy Together spokesperson told VERIFY that the app is no longer being used for COVID-19 contact tracing purposes. Instead, the spokesperson says the app has since evolved to support health and human services agencies, including solutions for Medicaid, WIC, and other health and nutrition programs.

The Healthy Together spokesperson also confirmed that the chain message’s claims are misleading.

“Regarding the specific claim in your message, it’s important to clarify that the Healthy Together app never accessed a user’s contact list without their consent. Contact tracing features were deployed in partnership with public health departments and adhered to strict privacy standards,” the Healthy Together spokesperson said.

We found that the Healthy Together App did request permission to gain access to the name and phone number of selected contacts in a person’s phone contact list so they could be contacted if the person tested positive for COVID-19. However, the phone user did not have to grant the app that permission, and they could still use the app as normal after saying no.

If the person said yes, Healthy Together’s privacy policy said it would only receive information about specific contacts who may have been exposed to the disease. But it would not track that person’s location or other identifiable information like the chain message claims.

Instead, the selected contact’s name and phone number would only be shared with U.S. state and local government organizations in order to assist them with case interview activities performed during contact tracing, which the app is no longer being used for.

The VERIFY team tested this on both the iOS and Android versions of the app in May 2020 and were able to tell the app we did not consent to granting it access to phone contacts when it was being used for contact tracing.