How it works
Contact tracing identifies people who may be at risk from COVID-19 because they were in close contact with someone who has the virus. By voluntarily choosing to use the Protect Scotland app you will help our NHS by:
- Reducing the time it takes to alert you if you come into close contact with another app user that tests positive
- Alerting other app users that you might have forgotten you were in close contact with
- Allowing us to anonymously alert people who don’t know each other
The app communicates with other app users’ phones using Bluetooth to swap anonymous random IDs when in proximity (2 metres or less) for an extended period of time (15 mins or more). The app calculates proximity measurements over a 24 hr period. This acts like a virtual handshake between devices, which can then be anonymously recalled if one of the contacts later tests positive for COVID-19. It is important, therefore, that app users keep Bluetooth enabled on their phones as often as possible.
Contact tracing is a vital part of slowing the spread of coronavirus. The more people who download and use the app, the more it will help to stop the transmission of the virus. Downloading the app supports the contact tracing process.
A contact tracer is an individual working for NHS Scotland’s Test and Protect service. Their role is to get in touch with individuals who have tested positive for coronavirus or have been identified as a close contact of someone who has tested positive.
For information on Contact Tracing Scams visit Trading Standards Scotland.
We advise that for the majority of users, you should keep the app active on your phone, and your phone on you as much as possible when you are out and about. There are very few circumstances where it is advised to turn the app off.
The app provides a good measure of the distance and time spent near a confirmed case and therefore good at identifying a risk if no other protections were in place. However, the app cannot take account of whether you were face to face or whether face coverings/screens were in place etc when the contact happened.
General advice is to keep your phone on you and the app active.
You SHOULD pause the app or turn off your phone if:
- Your phone is not on your person
- You are wearing medical grade PPE in a clinical setting
You SHOULD NOT pause the app or turn off your phone in the following scenarios:
- Where PPE, including visors and face coverings, is used in non-clinical settings (e.g. building sites, café’s, transport, by fire and police personnel)
- In the home or vehicles (signals from adjoining properties or vehicles are unlikely to result in a contact alert)
More detail is given below on using the app at work or at school.
I am an employer or an employee using the app at work
We recommend users of the app keep their mobile phone on them and the app active except where the following apply:
- If an employer has sought advice from their local Health Protection Team, and the outcome of their assessment suggests that appropriate mitigation is in place. Local Health Protection Teams may offer additional advice in relation to the use of the app
- If you are a health or social care worker in a clinical setting, wearing medical grade PPE. This includes ambulance personnel
- If you are protected by a fixed physical barrier from customers and colleagues for example you work behind a Perspex screen for the whole of the working day. This doesn’t apply if you constantly move around during the working day (e.g. café workers behind tills with a screen who also move around the café)
- If you keep your phone in a locker or equivalent facility at work and not on your person
Where exemptions apply you are advised to use the pause feature on the app. This feature allows you to temporarily suspend proximity tracing for a set time without affecting Bluetooth use for other parts of the phone, e.g. wireless headphones.
If you receive an alert from the app at work then it means you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Contact could have happened any time in the last 24hrs so you should follow the advice on the app.
If you receive a contact alert and do not think you have been in contact with anyone you can call the National COVID helpline (0800 028 2816). The team will help you and your parent/carer understand the exposure notification and to help you and your parent/carer make an informed decision as to whether you should self-isolate.
I am a student using the app at school or university
We recommend that where school policies allow, users of the app who can have their phones on them should keep the app active where local authority, school or university policies allow.
There are only a small number of exceptions to this guidance:
- If the local authority, school or university policy does not allow mobile phones to be kept on your person.
- If you step away from your phone for any reason e.g. you leave it in your locker during class or leave it in your bag when you go on a break.
Where these exemptions apply you are advised to use the pause feature on the app. This feature allows you to temporarily suspend proximity tracing for a set time without affecting Bluetooth use for other parts of the phone, e.g. wireless headphones.
If you are at school and receive an alert from the app during school hours, then you should alert a teacher straight away. The alert means you have been in contact with someone in the last 24 hrs who has tested positive for COVID-19.
Detailed guidance for reducing the risk of COVID-19 in schools
Detailed guidance for reducing the risk of COVID-19 in further education
If you receive a contact alert and do not think you have been in contact with anyone you can call the National COVID helpline (0800 028 2816) to help you and your parent/carer understand the exposure notification and to help you and your parent/carer make an informed decision as to whether you should self-isolate.
Anyone that tests positive for COVID-19 in Scotland will be contacted by a contact tracer, who will ask them about their close contacts and whether they are an app user. If you are an app user, the contact tracer will send you an SMS message with a randomly generated test code to enter into your app.
The app will then seek permission to share the anonymous IDs it has been gathering from your close contacts over the past 14 days. These IDs are stored on a secure NHS Scotland server so that other users’ apps can periodically check-in to see if they match up with a positive case.
If there is a match, the app will use a risk calculation to identify which users meet the criteria to trigger a close contact alert:
- Was the contact 2 metres or closer for a period of 15 minutes or more?
- Was the contact during the infectious period of the person that tested positive? (defined as 2 days before the onset of their symptoms; or for those tested positive with no symptoms (asymptomatic), the 2 days before their test date)
This is in-line with the policies currently used by Scotland’s NHS contact tracers.
If you receive an alert from the app then it means you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 and you should follow the advice on the app.
If you receive a contact alert and do not think you have been in contact with anyone you can call the National COVID helpline (0800 028 2816) to help you understand the exposure notification and make an informed decision as to whether to self-isolate.
If the app finds that you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, you will get an alert.
You won't know who the contact is or where the contact happened. You will just know that you were close enough (within 2 metres) for long enough (at least 15 minutes or more) for there to be a risk.
The app will advise you of what action you need to take, such as isolating at home for several days or booking a test if you experience symptoms.
The app provides links to further information on local/regional lockdowns and support available to help you self-isolate.
If you visit England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey or Gibraltar the app will continue to operate and exchange codes with anyone you come into close contact with who is using the app from one of those locations. Should an app user in one of these locations who you have been in close contact with test positive for coronavirus, you will be alerted by the Protect Scotland app. There is no need to download a further app.
The pause feature is controlled exclusively by you, and you can set a timer in the app to remind them to switch tracing back on. The app does not access any additional settings within your phone, so will not automatically switch itself back on.
Instructions on how to use the pause feature are below:
Alternatively, you can choose to turn off your phone as that means the app will automatically continue to work when the phone is turned back on again. It is also possible for you to disable Bluetooth or turn off the Exposure Notification Setting on your mobile phone. This will turn off the ‘contact tracing' functionality until the Exposure Notification Setting is switched back on. You will need to remember to turn your Exposure Notification Settings and/or Bluetooth back on.
The app is available for both iOS (Apple) and Android devices.
It uses the most current version of the phone’s operating system to make use of the latest Bluetooth technology. Some users may be asked to upgrade their operating system the first time they use it.
This means iPhones that support iOS 13.5 (or later) such as iPhone 6S and above or Android phones running Android 6.0 and higher.
If you have an older phone and can't upgrade to the latest operating system, you won't be able to use the app.
None of the information in this app is ever shared with Apple or Google.
The Protect Scotland app is built upon Google and Apple Exposure Notification technology and there are some subtle differences between how this works on Apple and Android devices.
The way the Android system handles exposure notifications means that both Bluetooth and location need to be turned on, and the Android system itself notifies you when you turn one or both off, rather than the Protect Scotland app. The onboarding process for Android users includes information about the use of location (it doesn’t use GPS), and the Android version of the app doesn’t have the same ‘tracing inactive’ feature that Apple phones do.
App users with Apple devices may receive weekly notifications referring to COVID-19 Exposure Logging. These messages are autogenerated by Apple iOS and do not form any part of operation of the Protect Scotland app.
They are not a close contact alert and do not require you to self-isolate.
If you receive an Exposure Notification, you can use the app to send a self-isolation certificate proving you need to self-isolate to yourself and organisations, e.g. your employer or your Scottish Local Authority.
You can request one self-isolation certificate per isolation period.
Each self-isolation certificate provided will contain a unique reference number, your name, the email address of the person receiving the certificate and the date when you can stop self-isolating.
The app sends a self-isolation certificate by email to all the individuals or organisations of your choice (e.g. your employer or yourself). You have to provide the email addresses for these recipients. It is your responsibility to ensure the email addresses are correct. We do not accept any liability for incorrect or invalid email addresses provided.
The app can also send a self-isolation certificate to your Local Authority to support your request for a self-isolation support grant. For this to happen, you must provide your permission and your full postcode.
