It’s been less than three days since the Australian Government launched the COVIDSafe tracing app, but it’s already at the centre of a texting hoax.
The Australian Federal Police are investigating a fraudulent text message telling app users that they’ve breached lockdown rules.
Speaking of dodgy COVID-19 messages, hear about all the pandemic anti-vaxxers below:
An example of the hoax message reads, “The COVIDsafe App has detected you are now +20km from your nominated home address.”
It then prompts users to “register your reason for travel” by calling a ‘MY GOV’ phone number within 15 minutes of receiving the text.
“Any misuse of telecommunications for a hoax is illegal,” Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said, as per the ABC. “Anybody who is found responsible will be charged with a significant criminal offence.”
“Whoever it is, they should be afraid of the law, because they are conducting a hoax which is about a very serious public health matter,” he said.
COVIDSafe is a tracing app designed to locate and contact registered residents who have been in contact with confirmed cases and are at risk of contracting COVID-19. Since it was launched on Sunday evening, it has already been downloaded by over 2.4 million Australians.
Aussies app users have been urged to ignore the fraudulent COVIDSafe text, but it’s not helping with mounting security concerns over the app.
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.”
The Department of Health has reassured users that the COVIDSafe App isn’t capable of tracking the location of users. “It does not track your location, only the proximity of your phone to other people’s phones that have downloaded the app, and cannot monitor a person’s location at any time,” a spokesperson said.
If downloading the app means flattening the curve, then it’s definitely worth it. However, these security concerns need to be addressed in order for the majority of Australia to get on board and make it a success.
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.