Inslee Walks Back Mandatory Contact Tracing Logs For Customers

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a contact tracing program to track who has the virus, where they've been, and who they've been in contact with. With contact tracing, the state hopes to speed up the isolation and quarantining processes and slow the spread of the virus.

Now, after critics raised privacy concerns, the governor is walking back a requirement that customers must give their contact information to the businesses they visit.

Contact tracing works by identifying every person that an infected coronavirus patient has recently been in contact with and putting those who have been exposed in quarantine. To do that, part of the governor's plan involved additional record-keeping: businesses were required to keep logs of contact information for each customer they served over the last 30 days.

Under the revised rules released Friday businesses must still keep those logs, but customers can choose not to share their information.

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Inslee still is urging as many customers to voluntarily give their contact information whenever possible to help make contact tracing work.

"We are asking visitors to voluntarily provide contact information in case of COVID-19 exposure," said Inslee in a statement. "We only need information for one person per household. If we learn you may have been exposed to COVID-19 during your visit, the information will only be shared with public health officials. They will contact you to explain the risk, answer questions and provide resources."

Businesses can not use the logs for marketing or sales, and are required to destroy unused logs after 30 days are up.

When contact tracing was first announced, the governor did note that the program could raise some privacy concerns and tried to address them. Contact data has been kept minimal, businesses are asked only to collect the customer's time of arrival, name, and a phone number or email where they can be reached.

Additionally, when contact tracers interview the contacts that a patient has made, those contacts will not be told who it was that may have exposed them to the coronavirus, in an attempt to preserve that patient's privacy.

Contact tracing is a five step process the state says will help "box in the virus."

1. Quarantine Upon First Symptoms: anyone showing signs of a coronavirus infection is first asked to stay isolated until they can get tested for the virus.
2. Test widely: test both the individual with symptoms and all members of their immediate household.
3. Isolate Quickly: place any patients who have the virus and their households in isolation to prevent further spreading.
4. Identify Contacts: identify everyone the sick patient may have recently been in contact with.
5. Quarantine Contacts: place those individuals who have been in contact with a coronavirus patient under quarantine.

Read more: Washington Begins Contact Tracing: Here's How It Will Work