Organisation : Ministry of Health
Facility Name : HaMagen App
Country : Israel
Website : https://govextra.gov.il/ministry-of-health/who-collaboration-center/campainbanners/
HaMagen App Israel
HaMagen is an app that is endorsed by the Ministry of Health. It can tell you have been in the presence of anyone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
About HaMagen App
The app cross-checks the GPS history of your mobile phone with historical geographic data of patients from the Ministry of Health.
HaMagen is available in five languages: Hebrew, Arabic, English, Russian and Amharic.
How Does It Work?
Step 1 : Download the app
The HaMagen app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. After installation and initial set up, you can close the app.
Step 2 : Receive Notifications
The app will send you relevant updates. If you have crossed paths with a COVID-19 patient, it will also show you the exact time and location, and you will be able to review, and confirm or reject the notification.
Step 3 : In case of a match
If you confirm, you will be referred to the Ministry of Health website for information on what to do next, and you will be able to report the exposure to the Ministry.
Step 4 : If there’s no match
If the message in the notification is incorrect, you can reject it and carry on as normal.
Is the application secure?
The cross-referencing of your GPS history with the locations of COVID-19 patients happens on your phone; your GPS data does not leave your mobile phone, and is not sent to any third party.
The data from the Ministry of Health is sent to your mobile phone for cross-referencing, no data is sent back to the Ministry of Health. For more on the transparency policy and the open source code for the app –
FAQs
1. What exactly is the HaMagen application and what does it do?
HaMagen is an application made by the Ministry of Health that allows you to know whether or not you’ve come in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 patient. It is intended to help us eradicate COVID-19 together.
2. Does the application know if I’ve been exposed in the two weeks prior to downloading it?
The application collects information about the history of proximity data between your device and other devices via Bluetooth services and uses your location history – from the moment you’ve installed it or going back 14 days, should you allow it to add location data from your Google account.
In this case it collects your location data for the last 14 days from Google only once. It subsequently cross-references your data with the data of verified COVID-19 patients who underwent an epidemiological investigation. Should it detect an overlap – it will notify you.
That’s the reason that this system does not provide real-time instructions, only retroactively.
It should be noted that we do not keep track of your personally identifable information on Google. This information is for your personal use only and is not forwarded to any other authority.