5/11/2023 0 Comments Aura sequential testing app![]() If a student leaves campus without permission, the app will alert the school, and the student’s ID card will be locked and access to campus buildings will be revoked, according to an email to students, seen by TechCrunch. In addition to having to install the app, students were told they are not allowed to leave campus for the duration of the semester without permission over fears that contact with the wider community might bring the virus back to campus. Scan the QR code to reveal the student’s test result status. The Aura app generates a QR code based on the student’s COVID-19 test results. Hundreds of academics have argued that collecting and storing location data is bad for privacy. Most other contact-tracing apps use nearby Bluetooth signals, which experts say is more privacy-friendly. If the student tests positive or has yet to be tested, the student’s QR code will read “denied.”Īura uses the student’s real-time location to determine if they have come into contact with another person with the virus. If the test comes back negative, the app displays a QR code which, when scanned, says the student is “certified” free of the virus. Once a student is tested for COVID-19, the results are fed into the app. The app helps students locate and schedule COVID-19 testing on campus. ![]() (We asked Genetworx about the app and its involvement, but TechCrunch did not hear back from the company.) The app was built in partnership with Genetworx, a Virginia-based lab providing coronavirus tests. Nucleus Careers is a Pennsylvania-based recruiting firm founded in 2020, with no apparent history or experience in building or developing healthcare apps besides a brief mention in a recent press release. Track and traceĮxactly how Aura came to be and how Albion became its first major customer is a mystery.Īura was developed by Nucleus Careers in the months after the pandemic began. But students are still expected to use the app or face suspension. ![]() The other allowed us to infer a student’s COVID-19 test results. One of the vulnerabilities allowed access to the app’s back-end servers. Worse, the app had at least two security vulnerabilities only discovered after the app was rolled out. The school’s mandatory use of the app sparked privacy concerns and prompted parents to launch a petition to make using the app optional. ![]() But the feature requires constant access to the student’s real-time location, which the college says is necessary to track the spread of any exposure. It also comes with a contact-tracing feature that alerts students when they have come into close proximity with a person who tested positive for the virus. The Aura app lets the school know when a student tests positive for COVID-19. The app is designed to track students’ real-time locations around the clock, and there is no way to opt out. The school said it would test both staff and students upon their arrival to campus and throughout the academic year.īut less than two weeks before students began arriving on campus, the school announced it would require them to download and install a contact-tracing app called Aura, which it says will help it tackle any coronavirus outbreak on campus. Lectures would be limited in size and the semester would finish by Thanksgiving rather than December. Schools and universities across the United States are split on whether to open for the fall semester, thanks to the ongoing pandemic.Īlbion College, a small liberal arts school in Michigan, said in June it would allow its nearly 1,500 students to return to campus for the new academic year starting in August.
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