Coronavirus tracing app: Why Australians need to know more
It promises to be our way out of social isolation and the Government wants millions to install it, but little is known about how Australia’s coronavirus-tracing app will operate.
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It’s the technology deemed necessary to get Australians out of self-isolation and returning to work, but little is known about what the Government’s coronavirus-tracking app will actually do, what information it will harvest from users, and how many government departments will share some of our most personal data.
The app, which experts say has been dangled like “one hell of a carrot” in front of Australians who want an end to pandemic restrictions, is still “some weeks away” from launch and comes amid contradictory information from Government ministers about what it will feature.
Some say the app will use GPS data, allowing the government to track users’ every move, and others say it will be better than Apple and Google’s contact-tracing model. Neither claim appears to be true.
Privacy and technology experts say while the app could help to prevent coronavirus infections, the Government needed to provide a lot more clarity to citizens about what information it would collect and how it would use that data before embarking on a big sell or a big threat to get users to install it.
News about the Australian coronavirus-tracing app emerged after weeks of speculation and a hiring spree by the Digital Transformation Agency early this month.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Government had been testing “the code of the technology that was used in Singapore” to trace cases of coronavirus in Australia — an app called TraceTogether.
That app uses Bluetooth technology to register when a phone using the app has been in close contact with another for 15 minutes and stores that information for 21 days.
After reporting a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis, authorities ask to access the user’s information to warn their “close contacts” to isolate themselves and be tested for the virus.
Those close contacts will also be asked to upload encrypted details of their movements in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus.
But Australia may not get an exact replica of the technology used in Singapore. Mr Morrison indicated there are still privacy potholes in its plan.
“There are a lot of issues that we still have to resolve for its use in Australia and the privacy issues are paramount among that,” he said.
“The Attorney-General is spending a lot of time on that at the moment.”
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Despite the hurdles, Mr Morrison described the app as “a tool that Australia will need if we are to pursue the road out of this” and warned that 40 per cent of Australians — more than 10 million people — would need to use it for it to be effective.
Neither he nor Deputy Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly would rule out making use of the app mandatory in Australia.
Swinburne University social media major director Dr Belinda Barnet said the contact-tracing app had so far been like “one hell of a carrot dangling in front of Australians”.
But she said sales pitch had occurred even though it was not clear whether Australia would use Singapore’s app in its entirely or software “modelled on it by the people who brought us Census fail”.
Electronic Frontiers Australia chairwoman Lyndsey Jackson urged the government to “bring the public into its confidence” by explaining exactly what the app would do, while paying particular attention to consent and storing data securely and locally.
“We need a position on technology that can be explained clearly and is well understood,” she said.
“And, critically, we need a very clear time limit on these extraordinary measures so that people can have confidence their trust now won’t be abused in future.”
Below are some of the questions Australians will need answered before they can confidently install and use a coronavirus-tracing app.
What information will be collected from users?
TraceTogether, on which Australia’s app will reportedly be based, collects mobile phone numbers from users, as well as encrypted details of the smartphones they come in close contact with, and data about their smartphone model and connection. We don’t know if the same will be true in Australia.
Will this app harvest GPS data from smartphones?
Early reports indicated the new app would use GPS data, which could be highly invasive. In this scenario, the Government would be able to track where people had been on a map. Neither TraceTogether nor the solutions proposed by Apple and Google use GPS data so this may not be the case.
Will it be used to identify coronavirus hot spots?
The Bluetooth model used in Singapore would not allow this, and Apple and Google confirmed their efforts could not be used in this way. If the Government’s app did use GPS data, it could use the information to identify virus clusters.
Where will the data be stored?
Data collected over Bluetooth connections could be stored in the user’s smartphone and accessed if they had been diagnosed with COVID-19. But where would the Health Department’s decrypted information be stored? Would it involve a third-party? Would it be stored on Australian servers? We simply don’t know.
Who will be able to access this information?
The Government must be very clear about who will be able to view citizens’ personal information to ensure mass adoption of this technology. Will it be restricted to the Health Department or could this information be used more widely? Could this information be shared with all health professionals, with schools, employers or with law enforcement? Could they be targeted by other government agencies in future?
How long will the Government use this information?
It is unclear how long Australia will remain on a pandemic footing but there should be restrictions built into this development to ensure the data has an expiry date and that tracking Australians by their smartphones will not continue after it is absolutely necessary.
When will we receive final details of the Australian app?
The Digital Transformation Agency is yet to comment on the development of this app. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would like to see it “ready in the next fortnight”, Social Services Minister Stuart Robert said delivery of the software was still “some weeks away”.
Originally published as Coronavirus tracing app: Why Australians need to know more