CovidSafe app privacy investigation launched after $21 million app officially shut down
It was once called the “ticket” out of lockdowns but now Australians are being urged to uninstall this app.
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Australia’s privacy chief will investigate whether the $21 million CovidSafe app, once sold as being Australians’ “ticket” out of lockdowns, is no longer collecting information from its users.
Australians with the app still installed are also expected to receive “push notifications and SMS texts” to encourage them to uninstall what is now widely seen as a white elephant.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner announced plans to investigate the app on Monday, after incoming Health Minister Mark Butler formally announced the end of the app in August, saying the former government had “wasted more than $21 million of taxpayers’ money” on it.
Following its launch, in April 2020, the contentious app identified just two Covid-19 cases that weren’t identified by manual contact tracers, as well as 17 close contacts.
That is despite more than $10 million spent to develop the app, $7 million on advertising it, and $4 million on its upkeep and staffing.
The CovidSafe app was officially shuttered on August 16, and the OAIC said it must now stop collecting data from its users, and must no longer appear in app stores.
All the data it collected must also be deleted, it said, and users must be told this has occurred.
“The OAIC will undertake an assessment to provide assurance that the CovidSafe app information management requirements have been met,” the organisation said in a statement.
Commissioner Angelene Falk is also tasked with ensuring all app data collected by the app is deleted from the National CovidSafe Data Store.
Users do not have to do anything to do anything to ensure their private information is deleted, but will be encouraged to uninstall the defunct app.
Originally published as CovidSafe app privacy investigation launched after $21 million app officially shut down
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