Barely a day has passed since the Australian Government released its COVIDSafe App and according to the ABC, more than 1.13 million Australians have already downloaded it.
The COVIDSafe app has been designed to help slow the spread of COVID-19 by finding close contacts of confirmed cases. The Department of Health states that the app will help “state and territory health officials to quickly contact people who may have been exposed to COVID-19.”
If someone tests positive and agrees to having their phone information uploaded, state and territory health officials can access that information and help alert those who may need to quarantine and get tested.
The COVIDSafe App will speed up the process of finding and contacting people who are at risk of contracting COVID-19, but it also comes with many security concerns.
The Guardian reports that the app will store “21 days of data of people you have come into contact with.” The data will be held on your phone during that period of time and only uploaded to a government server “in the event you test positive for coronavirus, and then consent for your log to be uploaded to the server.”
While the Australian Government is trying to flatten the curve, there are plenty who are against a vaccine altogether. LISTEN BELOW:
Pauline Wright, the President of the Law Council of Australia, has stated that the COVIDSafe App would need to follow a “series of core principles” to maintain privacy. Among those principles, Wright mentioned adoption of a voluntary ‘opt-in’ model, limits on the amount of personal info collected, prohibition on secondary use or disclosure of that info, and limited use of “de-identified” info for specified public health purposes.
There are also concerns around the app’s performance on iPhones. According to Government Services Minister Stuart Robert, if your iPhone is in low-power mode, “it reduces the background app refresh” which may impact “contract-tracing capabilities.”
Early reviews also accuse the app of failing to recognise certain users’ mobile numbers:
It’s worth mentioning that downloading the app is completely optional, however the Government has stated that 40% of Australians – or at least 10 million people – need to download the app for it to be successful.
If the government can ensure that the core principles of security are maintained within the app, and it can run effectively on all devices, more Aussies will be inclined to download it and it may help us flatten the curve and ensure lockdowns are lifted sooner rather than later.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.