The COVIDSafe app doesn’t work and should be replaced with new tech from Apple and Google, experts say
Technology experts argue the COVIDSafe app, while necessary, is built on faulty technology - a claim the Federal Government disputes.
SA Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- AFL boss may skip COVID quarantine for GF
- Rathjen investigated over his time at Melbourne uni
- Subscribers only: Treat Dad for Father’s Day
An award-winning Adelaide app developer, Quentin Zervaas, says the COVIDsafe App delivers “astoundingly bad performance” and “the app does not work anywhere near the standard it requires (if at all)” in a submission to a select committee.
Mr Zervaas argues there are “many bugs that have plagued and continue to plague the app’’, and says Australia should move - as many other countries are - to using the Exposure Notifications Framework contact tracing technology developed by Google and Apple.
That can effectively automate the process, with an upcoming update to the iPhone operating system introducing a new feature where users can opt in to “exposure notification’’ without even having to download an app.
Data provided to The Guardian after a Freedom of Information request indicates that in scenarios where two iPhones are locked, they may be logging each other’s proximity as little as 27 per cent of the time.
Mr Zervaas argues in a submission to the Senate Select Committee on COVID-19 that this is “astoundingly bad performance’’ and means that of the more than seven million people who have to date downloaded the app - well below the Federal Government’s target of 40 per cent of the population - only a fraction will be captured by any attempt at contact tracing.
Respected Adelaide-based technology entrepreneur Simon Hackett tweeted last month that the app was “an utter failure” and also endorsed moving to the Google/Apple solution.
A spokesman for Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert did not answer specific questions regarding the app, but referred The Advertiser to comments from deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth on August 9 in which he said it “has had a number of recent and notable successes’’.
“I guess the most significant one was the identification, not just of some contacts, but of an entire transmission event, so to speak, that wasn’t identified through the contact tracing interview, and that involved some 544 contacts in the west of Sydney being identified through the app,’' Dr Coatsworth said.
“And of those, two of those tested positive in the short space of time afterwards.’’
An update from the federal Digital Transformation Agency this week said a number of changes had improved the app’s performance.
“Over the last 4 months we have updated the app 10 times. We have responded to 27,000 pieces of feedback from users and health officials, and have addressed over 30 issues and improvements suggested by members of the tech community. Together we have improved accessibility, reliability, security and usability.’’
The Minister’s spokesman said the app was meant as an tool to assist manual contact tracing, not as a replacement.
An SA health spokeswoman said the app data had been used once in SA but since most local cases had been returning from overseas it was not relevant.