Israel's Synel, which develops technical solutions based on geographic location, has reached out to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, and coordinator of Israel's efforts to curb the coronavirus outbreak Professor Ronni Gamzu and volunteered its Harmony Smart app, which tracks the digital presence of people in quarantine without using their smartphone's microphone or camera.
The application allows users in quarantine to supply updates about their location, and matches the user's address with their physical location, or the physical location of their device. The only information passed along to the government is the location from where the report was sent, the time, and the telephone number of the quarantined user.
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Synel stressed that the app cannot access any hardware on user's phones, because it is based on GPS data.
In March, the company reached out to the relevant ministries and offered them the use of its app, but the government did not express an interest. Now that the second wave has arrived, with an increasing number of Israelis testing positive for COVID and being ordered to quarantine themselves, Synel has repeated its offer.
"Today, in the midst of the second wave, with tens of thousands of citizens in quarantine, as a proud Israeli business concerned about the health of the public, we are again reaching out and offering effective, immediate help in enforcing quarantine for thousands of Israelis," the company stated in a letter to the government.
Currently, despite movement tracking measures, Israeli COVID patients are largely responsible for policing their own quarantine. The more Israelis are assigned to quarantine, the harder it is for the authorities to ensure that they are following instructions.
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