Social Distancing +
Contact Interactions
The first time you launch the app, we'll generate a unique and random identifier for your devices. As you pass other users, your unique identifier will be shared with those nearby, allowing you to keep informed in the event any of these users start to develop symptoms.
We've made sure that we use the absolute minimum data to make the software useful. Only a unique identifier, specific to your devices, is shared with others. This identifier is random and cannot be associated with you.
Answer three simple questions to inform the software if you're feeling under the weather, have visited a professional, and the results of your visit. Others you may have been in contact with will be anonymously made aware.
Once per day, your app will check if any other users you have been in contact with have reported a positive test result. If so, your risk level will be updated to keep you informed.
We make our APIs, data models, and full data sets, available publicly. All data is completely anonymized and available for viewing any time. You can find this data available on our GitHub page.
We believe that the best way to help stop the spread of shareable health concerns is to take a privacy-focused approached to contact interactions. Our goal is to completely anonymize each user, making it safe to share basic information that can inform others. We want to offer complete transparency of what the app gathers, saves, and shares. Most importantly, your use of the app is within your control. Start or stop using the app at any time, giving you complete control of what you share and when.
Simply put, Further is a "social distancing" and "contact interactions" app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Further informs you if you are too close and not maintaining a safe social distance from others, as well as informs you if you have been near anyone that self-reported an illness or concern.
We are a husband and wife team, under the name B&B Media, LLC, that builds apps. We do app development mostly as a hobby, and our past experience includes working for major tech companies like Apple, working for media companies, and working with many amazing brands in Los Angeles and New York.
We're individuals, and we know that trusting our software is different than trusting apps built by big companies and organizations. Privacy has always been at the forefront of all of our work, and we built this app to see if we could develop something that used the least amount of information to have the largest impact.
Our mission is to offer a simple, easy-to-use app that does two things; informs you if you are standing too close to others (not "social distancing"), and informs you if you have been near others who have reported an illness or concern ("contact interactions"). We do this by gathering minimal data and put you in complete control of what you share,
as well as offer the ability to see all data gathered and shared by others.
At the core, we want to help inform others of their risk of being exposed to, or sharing, illness, but do so in a way where your privacy is paramount. We hope that engaging design, easy-to-use software, and the passion we have for helping others will make our app something you consider using as our lifestyles adapt to the changing environment.
On April 10, 2020, Apple and Google announced a joint effort to build contact tracing technology into iOS and Android (the operating systems that power much of the world's smartphones). You can read their announcement here.
We were about half-way through development of the Further app when this announcement became public and decided to keep pushing forward on our software. After reading the technical documentation on Apple and Google's approach, we are happy to see that our approach maintains a remarkably similar and privacy-forward mentality to contract tracing.
While very similar in premise and functionality, Further is a self-contained app that allows for social distancing notifications and contact interactions. We believe that offering an app-based alternative will only help adoption of contact tracing/interaction technology. We know that Apple and Google's efforts will be more robust, adoptable, and better exhibited than
our efforts, but we believe that offering a similar approach with a more personal feel can only help adoption. Our app is available now and we will work our hardest to ensure it is stable, evolving, and providing the most transparent data to our users.
As accurate as we can make it. With regards to "social distancing," we calculate the signal strength between your device, and others, to determine if they seem too close in proximity. This can be heavily impacted by factors such as interference, environment, and even weather. The social distancing calculations are a guide, but should not be relied upon for accuracy.
For contact interactions, all data is provided by our users and is not validated. What you see in the app is meant to be informative and helpful, but certainly not definitive. If you see that you have been near users that have reported an illness, we hope you will keep aware of your symptoms and strongly consider how to best keep yourself and family safe. Use your best judgement and follow the guidance of medical professionals.
Further is absolutely a free app. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, and no subscriptions.
You can contact us by e-mailing hello@further-app.com or by sending a message below. We'll try to respond to any and all inquiries as quickly as possible.
Social Distancing
Using the Bluetooth antennas built into your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, you can be informed of best practices regarding social distancing. By determining the signal strength between you and other users of the app, your app will notify you if you seem too close to another person.
On supported devices, helpful haptic notifications will keep you alerted when you come too close to others. Tap on the heart to silence haptics at any time.
Social distancing is incredibly important. Yes, it's for fun in the app, but having a bit of guidance can help to keep you aware of your surroundings and be safest.