Coronavirus Australia: COVIDSafe app now online to trace virus contacts

The government’s new contact tracing app is now available, and those reluctant to download it are being asked to remember one group of people.

The government is asking people to consider the health and safety of the doctors, nurses and other healthcare staff on the frontline of the coronavirus fight and download the new contact tracing app to support them.

Many have voiced privacy concerns over the app’s collection of data but the government thinks it’s done what it needs to stop data being used in the wrong way.

The app “has one job and one job alone, and that is that if you are positive, to be able to make that available only to the state public health authorities, with nobody else having access and to make sure it is voluntary,” health minister Greg Hunt said.

The privacy protections for the new COVIDSafe app include making it illegal to force anyone to download the app or hand over data from it.

It is voluntary to download the app after the government determined it would be “unacceptable” for Australians to be forced to download it.

The app is now available to download. Picture: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images

But if you do contract COVID-19 you will then be asked again whether or not you consent to the data being shared so that other app users you’ve had contact with can be informed they’ve been near a confirmed patient.

Mr Hunt introduced the app Sunday afternoon saying it was a tool to help our health care workers.

“It is about supporting our magnificent doctors and nurses, pharmacists, allied health workers, aged care workers and carers.”

He said we are doing well as a nation in the fight against coronavirus but “we haven’t won yet”.

“As part of our work in supporting those doctors and nurses, we will be releasing the COVIDSafe app and the COVIDSafe app is about assisting in finding those cases which may be undiagnosed in the community, helping people get early treatment, helping people have early diagnosis and to ensure that our doctors and nurses, our health workers, our families and friends are protected, and that will save lives and protect lives,” Mr Hunt said.

“What we need to do is to ensure that there is tracing, and that tracing is about helping to find cases in the community. Public health officials have been doing that manually and we are expanding that capacity today with the COVIDSafe app.”

There are severe penalties for anyone misusing the app data.

Mr Hunt said people who misuse the app date could end up in jail.

“It is prevented, by law, from being used for any other purpose and to use it for any other purpose is punishable with jail.”

Data for each day will be deleted off your phone after three weeks, and all the data is supposed to be deleted when the COVID-19 pandemic ends, whenever that is.

When you register you will need to provide a name (which doesn’t have to be your real one), your postcode, phone number and age range.

Mr Hunt said it doesn’t matter if you use a fake name, but it was better if it was “exactly who you are”.

“Above all else we want to be able to be in contact for the state health officials to be in contact,” Mr Hunt said.

The government sought to minimise the amount of data required by the app.

The data generated by the app is supposed to be encrypted and sit on your mobile phone unless you give permission for it to be shared.

Data that is shared is supposed to stay on a server in Australia, never leave the country, and be inaccessible to anyone but health authorities.

Only state and territory health authorities are supposed to access and use the data.

Anyone else who does will be in violation of the biosecurity act.

You won’t even be able to access the data on your own phone.

The COVIDSafe app is now available for download.

At the moment, anyone who contracts COVID is the subject of aggressive contact tracing, done manually.

The majority of cases in Australia to date are in people who have recently returned from overseas or have a known link with a confirmed patient.

But there are still around 500 cases where no source has been found.

Despite early claims it would require 40 per cent of Australians adopting the app for it to be effective, that number has now been walked back to say the more people downloading the better.

“Good uptake, in my mind, would be well over half the people and I think we will get it because I think Australians will rise to the challenge because they have risen to the challenge of distancing,” chief medical officer Dr Brendan Murphy said.

“We are one of the best countries in the world in our response and that is because of our people. All Australians want to know is that this app is safe and their privacy is protected and it is used for that purpose. This is bolted on security. I think they will take it up,” Dr Murphy added.

The app should make it faster for health authorities to trace contacts of confirmed coronavirus patients. Picture: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images

He said the benefit of the app is that it reduces the time it takes to find out if you’ve had contact with a confirmed case.

“Finding out quickly means you can quarantine yourself or be treated much faster, protecting your family and friends from possible infection, and slowing the spread of the virus,” Dr Murphy said.

“Without this technology, health officials have to rely on people being able to remember who they have been around, and being able to provide contact details for those people.”

“The chief medical officer’s advice is we need the COVIDSafe app as part of the plan to save lives and save livelihoods,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement. “The more people who download this important public health app, the safer they and their family will be, the safer their community will be and the sooner we can safely lift restrictions.”

Australia's new COVIDSafe app is now available to download on the Google Play store and iOS app store, with registrations opening from 6pm this evening.

The new tracking app will use Bluetooth “handshakes” (where your phone’s Bluetooth signal meets the one coming from another phone) to record any contact with another user who downloaded the app that comes within 1.5 metres or 15 minutes proximity.

Bluetooth typically has a range of between 10 and 30 metres depending on the equipment.

The government said the app doesn’t use GPS data.

The “handshakes” note the date and time, distance and duration of the contact.

iPhone users will have to keep the app running on their phone for it to be effective.

An in-built “power saver” dims the screen but keeps the app running if your iPhone is placed face down to preserve battery life.

Experts say while the app will work if your iPhone is locked, if you have too many apps on the go it may not pick up every contact, believed to be because of the ways iOS suspends apps that aren’t in the foreground.

Updates are expected in the next few weeks to address these issues.

A video produced by the government to explain the app tells Australians “it will help us stop the spread sooner so we can get back to the things we love”.