Amazon flows for the Greens too
Adam Bandt isn’t happy that a US company is storing the data from our COVID-19 app. But he forgot an important detail.
Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt hasn’t held back in his critique of the Morrison government’s decision to store data from its new contract-tracing-not-tracking app COVIDSafe with US-based Amazon Web Services.
The Department of Home Affairs’ contract with Amazon strictly specifies that all data will be kept in Australia. And new laws making it a criminal offence for the information to be sent offshore (with a penalty of five years behind bars and a fine of up to $63,000) will be put to parliament. You know, whenever it meets again (don’t know where, don’t know when).
When the gov doesn’t want to tell you something there’s usually a reason.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) April 24, 2020
Today we’ve found out that the App’s tracking data will be kept by a US company.
If there’s one person I trust less to keep our personal data safe than Peter Dutton, it’s Donald Trump.
When the government doesn’t want to tell you something there’s usually a reason,” Bandt tweeted on Friday. “Today we’ve found out that the app’s tracking data will be kept by a US company. If there’s one person I trust less to keep our personal data safe than Peter Dutton, it’s Donald Trump.”
Bandt continued: “Our unfair trade agreements with the US mean Australians’ personal data — who you’ve met, who you live with, who you’ve stayed with — could potentially be up for grabs by US law enforcement. This is a gross violation of privacy, and can’t be allowed to happen.”
Our unfair trade agreements with the US mean Australians’ personal data - who you’ve met, you you live with, who you’ve stayed with - could potentially be up for grabs by US law enforcement.
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) April 24, 2020
This is a gross violation of privacy, and can’t be allowed to happen.
Greens deputy Nick McKim also won’t be downloading the app, calling it “a grave privacy risk” that “must be stopped”. You’ve got to admire the chutzpah of the Greens. When Strewth ran a quick hostingchecker.com search, we discovered that greens.org.au is hosted by none other than (drum roll, please) Amazon Technologies Inc.
Even if the data is stored in Australia, the CLOUD Act still applies which means US law enforcement agencies have a claim on it.
— Nick McKim (@NickMcKim) April 24, 2020
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Accelerated learning
Few politicians readily admit when they’ve stuffed up.
Last Wednesday, Bandt’s office sent out a statement (joining Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe’s calls for tax reform) with this quote attributed to the Greens leader: “You don’t accelerate out of a corner. The government is flagging an era of aggressive deregulation, but that will only prolong the pain and leave us poorly equipped to deal with future economic shocks.”
An hour and a half later, this clarification landed in Strewth’s inbox: “A previous version of this release suggested that you don't accelerate out of a corner. This was in error. Just as the Greens advocate for green growth to help the economy recover, professional drivers advocate for accelerating out of corners.”
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Good Will Hunt-ing
Should we read something into Health Minister Greg Hunt and his team of medical experts being sent out to launch COVIDSafe on Sunday, not the minister in charge, Government Services Minister Stuart Robert? Cue the rogues at satirical news site The Betoota Advocate: “Government Who Blame Every Website Crash On Hackers Confused By Suspicion Towards Tracing App”. There wasn’t a single app authority at the press conference.
Government Who Blame Every Website Crash On Hackers Confused By Suspicion Towards Tracing App: https://t.co/7kSVXh1JNJ pic.twitter.com/BQKLhIJ1MM
— The Betoota Advocate (@BetootaAdvocate) April 27, 2020
But there was Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Annie Butler: “I’m not a tech expert, but apparently it uses Bluetooth handshake, which is the only handshake we're allowed.” Mild chuckling ensued.
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App-etising banter
Nearly two million Quiet Aussies have downloaded the app, including former prime minister Julia Gillard and ACTU boss Sally McManus.
“I downloaded the COVIDSafe app because I just assume they track everything I do anyway and at least this might save lives,” McManus tweeted. (Savvy readers may recall the government declined in this column last week to refute McManus’ wild allegation that it taps union officials’ phones.)
I downloaded the CovidSafe app because I just assume they track everything I do anyway and at least this might save lives
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) April 26, 2020
But not One Nation leader Pauline Hanson — who earlier this month promised to protest against Victoria’s social distancing rules by lying down in her Queensland paddock.
“I don’t want them tracking me, I don’t trust the government,” Hanson told the Nine Network on Monday.
“I know damn well that I haven’t been around people and I have been self-isolating and I haven’t got the COVID-19.
“Besides when you’ve got only a few cases in the blasted country, and they lock down the whole bloody country still and they want to put this app on your phone when we’ve very much on the decrease? Come on.”
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Scissors, paper, rock
What about real-life handshakes? Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy on Monday: “Even if we release restrictions in the future, people need to change the way they interact permanently … like keeping distance away from each other, hand hygiene. Probably not permanently not shaking hands but certainly for the foreseeable future.”
Help Australia control outbreaks of coronavirus by downloading the COVIDSafe app. This highly secure app enables public health workers to notify people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 more quickly and effectively. Learn more: https://t.co/ePN7dURoyH pic.twitter.com/HSHyEzHAFh
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) April 27, 2020
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Gotta love hecklers
Forget Newspoll! How’s this for voter feedback, heckled at the West Australian Premier on Monday during a live press conference no less (that, incidentally was being broadcast on the ABC with an Auslan interpreter signing along): “Woo! Mark McGowan. F..king love you buddy!”
McGowan’s response? “That’s not the sort of language you normally hear in Rockingham.”
strewth@theaustralian.com.au
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