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Ray Breslin • Apr 17, 2020
Australia's Coronavirus Contact Tracking App: What We Know So Far
Scott Morrison says consent will be key, indicating the app won’t be mandatory, but it could play a part in easing Covid-19 restrictions
The Australian government is planning to launch an app in a matter of weeks that will trace every person who has been in contact with a mobile phone owner in the previous few weeks, in a bid to automate coronavirus contact tracing, and allow the easing of restrictions.
Here’s what we know about the app so far.
How does the app work?
Scott Morrison told reporters on Thursday that the app, currently being vetted by the Australian Signals Directorate, would be similar to or based on the Singapore TraceTogether app.
That app works by using Bluetooth to record anyone you get close to who also has the app. The two apps exchange anonymised IDs, which are stored encrypted on phones and deleted after 21 days.
If someone is infected with coronavirus, authorities can upload the list of anonymised IDs for the past 14 days for contact tracing.
What personal data is collected?
The Singapore version of the app collects mobile phone numbers which are not sent to every user, just to the owner of the app and the health department for contact tracing.
The app also collects information about phone models and signal strength, and anonymised app analytics data.
Can it trace my location?
We haven’t seen the full detail of the government’s proposal, but the Singapore version does not record location.
Will it drain my battery?
It depends on what the Australian version looks like. The Singapore version has many negative reviews on the app store, with users complaining about being forced to keep the app open in order for it to function.
That would not only be inconvenient for people travelling around with their phone, but would drain the battery faster.
Will it be mandatory?
The prime minister said consent would be key to the app, indicating it would not be mandatory, and people would share information through the app only if they consented to it.
The Singapore version of the app allows people to email the government to have their mobile phone and ID deleted from the server.
However it is less clear whether, in order for restrictions to be eased, governments around Australia will require people to use the app if they leave their house.
The national cabinet
said on Thursday that the app could be a valuable tool “if the numbers increase and the application is widely taken up”.
It’s not clear what percentage of the population would need to be using the app for the government to consider it to be successful, but others have estimated it would need around 50% uptake by mobile phone users across Apple and Android to be effective.
Morrison said on Thursday automatic contact tracing would be a key component in states and territories easing some restrictions on “high-value, low-risk economic activities” after the next four weeks.
He compared using the app to buying bonds during the war.
“In the war, people bought war bonds to get in behind the national effort. What we’re doing in fighting this fight is we’ll be asking people to download an app which helps us trace the virus quickly and the more people who do that, the more we can get back to a more liveable set of arrangements.”
Should I be worried about the privacy implications?
Always. But there isn’t as yet enough detail about how it would work in Australia to know what the implications are. Morrison said he was pushing for greater privacy protections than the Singapore model.
“The reason we are not quite ready yet is we are still working through ensuring that it meets the privacy protections, which are robust and up to a standard that we believe is necessary for the Australian context, and that is what the attorney general is working on right now,”
he said.
Privacy experts have warned the app needs to be more decentralised, so that the central servers that store the IDs do not become honeypots for potential hackers.
Government services minister Stuart Robert said the app was going through a privacy impact assessment with the help of the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
When pressed for more detail, his office declined to comment.
Are there other options?
One possibility that could even be integrated into the Trace Together app is the proposal by Apple and Google.
That version works like the TraceTogether app, but with more randomised IDs that change every 15 minutes and, unlike TraceTogether, it does not require you to provide your mobile phone number.
When a person who has tested positive for coronavirus consents to upload the last 14 days of contacts, the health department can then alert those contacts via the app itself that they should get tested.
The IDs are deleted from the server after 14 days.
Apple and Google would retain the ability to disable the tech should governments across the world try to alter the purpose of the app.
Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd | theguardian.com
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