Imagine waking up to an email, or receiving a text message, that alerts you to the news that you have or may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. No, this is not a hoax and, no, your email and/or phone number has not been hacked. You have likely just encountered a member of the “contact tracing armies” that are being formed across the United States and elsewhere who, with government backing, seek to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The idea behind “contact tracing” is simple: Find out who the known coronavirus patients are, find out who they have been in contact with during the last two weeks, find out who those people have been in contact with in the last two weeks, and so on until you have fully traced who has or may have the disease.