Soon, residents of the state will be able to be notified on their smartphone if they have been exposed to the coronavirus if they so choose.

Joined by Sarah Tuneberg, the state’s senior COVID-19 advisory and innovation response team leader, Gov. Jared Polis on Tuesday announced a new partnership between Colorado and Google and Apple that will leverage technology to help the state slow the spread of the virus.

The technology is called Exposure Notification services that all state residents will have the ability to opt in to on their smartphones later on in September, according to Polis.

The service will allow individuals to know if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus without compromising their privacy or data, something both Tuneberg and Polis stressed several times during a press conference in which this technology was announced.

“This has worked very effectively in countries like South Korea, a similar product in South Korea worked very, very well in stemming the outbreak early and allowing them to get back to much more normalcy quicker than America has accomplished,” Polis said, noting that Colorado will be one of the first states to move forward with the technology in the U.S.

Tuneberg said the technology is entirely optional and that privacy and security are at the core of the design of the service.

The technology will be available to both iOs and Android users in Colorado.

When someone opts in to the service, they will be notified if they’ve been exposed to the virus from another person also using the service, Polis explained.

The technology does not track location and does not share anyone’s identity with Google, Apple, other users, or the state.

Chieftain reporter Ryan Severance can be reached by email at ryans@chieftain.com or on Twitter @RyanSevvy. Help support local journalism by subscribing to the Chieftain at chieftain.com/subscribenow.