Tracking app could hold key to easing COVID-19 restrictions
Australians will soon be asked to sign up for a tracking app that alerts users to nearby COVID-19 infections, and while authorities anticipate privacy concerns, it could hold the key to easing restrictions.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Fear of new outbreaks outweigh lockdown limits
- Confusion over schools as PM backs return to classrooms
A voluntary mobile tracking app will alert Australians if they have been exposed to the coronavirus, allowing health officials to rapidly isolate infection outbreaks and speed up easing restrictions.
The federal government app is expected to be ready for the public to download within weeks, with the hope millions of people will sign up to boost Australia’s contact tracing capability.
A person who used the app and tested positive for COVID-19 could notify health authorities so an alert would be sent to anyone they had been in contact with for 15 minutes or more in the 24 hours prior to symptoms.
MORE NEWS
Sydney suburb where landlords are offering free rent
Shock footage shows Wuhan wet market trading
China must pay for COVID-19, says former Liberal leader
With improved capacity to quickly identify and quarantine anyone exposed to the coronavirus, Australia would be in a much better position to then lift some shutdown measures.
The government hopes at least 40 per cent of Australians volunteer to install the app on their phone, which then collects data when two people with the app come into contact.
While the government anticipates concerns about privacy, the technology is modelled on a Singaporean app called “Trace Together” which only collects data with the user’s permission.
This data is then shared with health authorities and no other users or government officials.
The Singapore app uses Bluetooth to accurately determine when two people are in close proximity.
The location data is encrypted and stored only on the user’s phone.
If a person is diagnosed with COVID19, health officials will seek the permission to access their data if it is need for contact tracing.
Anyone who also has the app installed and has come into contact with that phone, receives an alert to advise they may have been exposed and need to isolate.
If that person has coronavirus symptoms, they can then volunteer to share their own movement data with health authorities who can then continue the contact tracing.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Prof Paul Kelly said Australia was “very much interested” in what could be done to find close contacts of cases “as quickly as possible”.
“So one of the things that’s been looked at is the use of apps or some other digital technology to do that,” he said.
“Google and Apple have talked in recent days about their own investigations.
“Several other countries are indeed using such apps, so that is part of the broad discussion the government will be having in relation to the next steps.”
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said it was clear for an app to be effective the government would need a “significant portion” of the population to use it.
“If that did happen, it could be a very effective tool,” he said.
“It is something that is a potential tool open to the Australian Government.
“But a decision would only be taken if the government were satisfied as to the privacy safeguards and as to there being community understanding and support about the benefits this tool could provide, and the basis on which people would use it.”
Originally published as Tracking app could hold key to easing COVID-19 restrictions