Stuart Robert says Apple could fix COVIDSafe contact tracing app Bluetooth issue “tomorrow”

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert has fired a barb at Apple over the COVIDSafe contact tracing app.

Government Services minister Stuart Robert.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert has fired a barb at Apple over the COVIDSafe contact tracing app. He says the US tech giant could “fix” an issue “tomorrow” involving locked iPhones not picking up all Bluetooth signals from similar iPhones.

The COVIDSafe app has been downloaded about 6.7 million times and is designed to help trace the contacts of a person with COVID-19. The app uses Bluetooth to discover and record the encrypted IDs of other phones nearby so they can be traced later if necessary.

Speaking on Sky News Australia, Mr Robert said a phone’s ability to detect the Bluetooth signal from nearby phones varied from handset to handset. “It varies from handset to handset, from operating system to operating system, and from Android to Google,” he told Sky News.

“The effect is, from Android to Android is excellent, close to 100 per cent. The effectiveness from Android to iOS drops down. The effectiveness from an iOS iPhone 11 running the latest software will vary when it connects to an iPhone version seven.”

When pressed on whether iPhones detect other iPhones, Mr Robert told interviewer Annelise Nielsen that Apple could fix this “tomorrow”. “Apple could fix this tomorrow, they could actually ensure that the Bluetooth strength works at the highest possible level tomorrow, for applications built in a sovereign framework,” Mr Robert said.

An iPhone displays the COVIDSafe contact tracing app.

“The DTA (Digital Transformation Agency) say that it‘s moderately effective, which is for about 50 per cent of the time, if you’re using an iOS with the application in the background and the phone is locked, seeking to do a connection to an iPhone in exactly the same state,” he said.

“It varies depending upon the handset and the level of software or version of software being used, and that‘s why we’re working with Apple and Google.

“Apple and Google could fix this tomorrow, with the exposure notification framework, which was their way of doing things – with an app in the background with a locked phone, the iOS Bluetooth works perfectly.”

Apple and Google have jointly built an alternative tightly integrated system for contact tracing however the integration between hardware and software isn’t available to apps that don’t use their system like COVIDSafe.

The COVIDSafe app has also attracted criticism over its inability to find new contacts of COVID-19 sufferers that manual contact tracers hadn’t found independently.

Mr Robert said the app assisted rather than replaced manual contact tracing. “It‘s been used over 300 times now by health officials to ensure that manual tracing is picking up all the various contacts, so it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.

“You‘re coming from a proposition that if the app doesn’t find something that manual tracing doesn’t, it’s a failure. I would argue against that.”

Ms Nielsen replied: “I‘m coming from a place where when you look at the information provided by the Digital Transformation Agency, it says that it’s quite ineffective in many instances in picking up those contacts if the phone is locked.”

Mr Robert’s view might have been defensible when there was little community transmission prior to the Victorian outbreak, and therefore limited cases for testing the app, but given the size of the current community transmission, the public would expect it to trace contacts not found by manual methods.

Mr Robert said the DTA had now released the eighth version of the app. “The last one went in last night, so the app improves all the time, but it‘s using the native Bluetooth on the handset so the limitation will always be what the handset allows you to do.

“And certainly if the app is in the background on an iOS device, it‘s locked, connecting to another iOS device, it is not as effective as an Android device with the app in the foreground unlocked.”

Google didn’t offer us evidence that the Apple/Google alternative contact tracing system has found contacts, although apps using the system have been downloaded in Germany (15.4 million times), Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Switzerland, the US state of Alabama, and others. That detail will be a matter for individual countries to release.

The Apple/Google system warns contacts that they should get tested after being close by an infected person, but their system doesn’t inform health officials, which while great privacy wise, means that adopting countries don’t necessarily know how many contacts have been successfully traced. Neither does Apple and Google.

Apple would not comment on Mr Robert’s claim. It is understood the tech giant doesn’t publicly talk about discussions with developers.