The COVID-19 App

[Juliar]

What is the REAL purpose of the Govt COVID-19 App ?



Australia's COVIDSafe contact tracing story is full of holes and we should worry
By Stilgherrian for The Full Tilt | May 3, 2020 -- 23:46 GMT (09:46 AEST) | Topic: Coronavirus: Business and technology in a pandemic

The government's coronavirus strategy bets heavily on an unproven COVID-19 tracing app, but the lack of a working back end and ham-fisted messaging risks the loss of the public's trust.


The message from Prime Minister Scott Morrison is simple, patronising, and dangerously misleading: Download the COVIDSafe app and we can start letting you out of coronavirus lockdown.

It's misleading because there's no evidence that a so-called "contact tracing" app will be a net benefit. Someone should've checked that up front.

It's dangerous because much of the official messaging is about being "safe" and "protecting" you.

The COVIDSafe strategy is technological hubris. Blind faith that an app can replace, or at least substantially enhance, the urgent labour-intensive detective work of contact tracing.

"The lure of automating the painstaking process of contact tracing is apparent. But to date, no one has demonstrated that it's possible to do so reliably despite numerous concurrent attempts," wrote researchers and academics at the Brookings Institution.

"We worry that contact tracing apps will serve as vehicles for abuse and disinformation, while providing a false sense of security to justify reopening local and national economies well before it is safe to do so."

COVIDSafe doesn't do what contact tracers do. It merely logs which other COVIDSafe users you've been near, ready for later analysis, should one of you test COVID-19 positive.

That won't pick up potential infection paths such as random unrelated people buying a takeaway muffin from the same cafe across several days, taking moments to do so. It won't notice you sliding your hand along a dirty handrail.

That's why Apple and Google's partnership to develop a tracing-friendly API has been labelled as "exposure notification" apps instead.

The Brookings researchers detail flaws such as false positives leading people to ignore repeated alerts, when people are close but safely separated by walls, or using personal protective equipment (PPE).

Read on here

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/articl ... uld-worry/

[Juliar]

COVIDSafe app



The COVIDSafe app speeds up contacting people exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19). This helps us support and protect you, your friends and family. Please read the content on this page before downloading.

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/app ... idsafe-app

[Juliar]

The COVID-10 App does not actually function as yet.

However, according to multiple reports, the government’s COVIDSafe app is barely functional on iOS devices, state health authorities don’t yet have access to the contact tracing data it was designed to collect and the app is interfering with some Bluetooth-based medical devices.



Australia’s COVID-19 app is buggy, not yet operational. The Morrison Government erred in rushing app release...
By Patrick Gray and Brett Winterford · May 04, 2020

The Australian Government has placed uptake of its COVID-19 contact tracing app front and centre of its strategy to walk back lockdown measures, despite mounting evidence it isn’t fit for purpose.

On Friday, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison framed uptake of the government’s contact tracing app as one of a few remaining pre-conditions before lockdown measures would be lifted.

However, according to multiple reports, the government’s COVIDSafe app is barely functional on iOS devices, state health authorities don’t yet have access to the contact tracing data it was designed to collect and the app is interfering with some Bluetooth-based medical devices.

The most predictable issue was whether iPhones would be able to exchange identifiers with other phones when the app wasn’t running in the foreground. This was the main reason to hold back the release of the app until mobile OS vendors could make specific allowances for it. Detailed analyses of the app by a group of Australian Android and iOS developers has now confirmed that two iOS devices running COVIDSafe in the background do not exchange identifiers.

Risky.Biz can also reveal that while the app was designed to anonymise users and explicitly avoid location tracking, numerous implementation flaws can be abused to track user locations via the app’s Bluetooth beacons.

Google and Apple, meanwhile, have released a beta version of their contact tracing API to public health authorities, which by design would resolve many of the limitations affecting COVIDSafe and other contact tracing apps around the world.

The Australian government has signalled it may need to redevelop COVIDSafe to rely on the new API. This begs the question: why did the government prematurely release a buggy app with questionable utility, mere weeks before the anticipated release of mobile operating system support for contact tracing? Was COVIDSafe simply an exercise in getting Australia ready for contact tracing apps that actually work?

Officials have not been forthcoming with answers to that question. Perhaps there were doubts about Google and Apple’s ability to introduce contact tracing support by mid-May. Perhaps the current version of COVIDSafe serves as a mere “placeholder” install base until something more functional can replace it, despite the inherent risks involved in relying on millions of people to successfully update a mobile app. Or perhaps there isn’t a coherent strategy and that the Government simply wanted to chalk up the appearance of a digital win.

Read on here https://risky.biz/covidsafeissues/

[Neferti]

I downloaded the App. I follow the little message that pops up, viz:

We need you!
Help stop the spread of covid-19 by keeping your Bluetooth on and the app open in power saver mode when you're meeting, public spaces or public transport.

I only turn Bluetooth on (via my phone's Settings) when I am "meeting" with anybody - otherwise I just turn Bluetooth OFF (via Settings). Easy.

[Juliar]

The sickness of Socialist sabotage at work with the deeply evil GetUp! hard at work!!!!


COMMENT:The ABC Wants The COVID-19 App To Fail, Links With Get Up Exposed
By David Richards| 5 May 2020



More than 4.9 million Australians have downloaded the CovidSafe app and downloads are rising, much to the angst of several journalists including those at the ABC and the likes of Get Up and employees of the left wing Victorian Government Health department who are hoping that the Governments attempts to manage the spread using an app fails not for health or safety reasons but their beat up ill-informed vengeful claims about security.

What is clear is that the modes operandi at the ABC who are being cheered on by the likes of Get Up is to put hurdles in the way of the app roll out, while also using so called ‘experts’ to publish disinformation about the COVID-19 app which every Australian should be forced to download if they want to return to riding public transport or working in an office alongside other people who could have come into contact with a carrier of COVID-19.

The target is 10 million and as soon as this target is reached the Federal Government is set to relax restrictions further.

Opponents of the app include Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer who has been counselled on her use of social media and removed her Twitter account from her taxpayer-funded phone, after last week likening Captain Cook to COVID-19 in a tweet.

However, Annaliese van Diemen’s Twitter account — including the Captain Cook tweet and numerous politically partisan and controversial tweets — remains online and she still has a job in part because of the support of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews or should we call him Comrade Andrews.

I have worked around technology for 40 years and there is no security risk with this app, in fact I believe that every business should only be allowed to reopen if all their staff have downloaded the COVID-19 Federal Government management app.

Earlier today NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged NSW residents to download the contract tracing app this morning.

Read all about the evil Socialist saboteurs at work against Australia here

https://www.channelnews.com.au/commentt ... p-exposed/

[Juliar]

Labor's Mr Been has really won some supporters with this gaff.

Craig Russell did he say this? or something similar?

Arthur Winter I don’t watch The Project for the same reasons I don’t eat out of the toilet.

Mark Thistlethwaite Waleed maybe right,,So he can go first and sacrifice himself and his mates. Then the rest of us can stay around and see how much better the world would be without them,,BRILLIANT !!

Tracey Blyth Can't bear to look at him even in cartoon form.

Darren Reichel A real silver lining would be the demise of Waleed.
*waits for a Facebook jail term*

Lily Rose 8 Billion people...food for Thought!!

Don Ruse Next he will be wanting Aztec type temples and the occasional sacrifice

Elizabeth Schiemer He must believe in his own invulnerabilty. The planet will survive and adapt but some times death IS a blessing for humanity.

Barbara K Barrett Waleed should use himself as an example. Why on earth did he have children when he thinks like this.

Anne Cauchi Perhaps Wally needs to donate his own self to the cause!

James Blackford If covid 19 was a person.

Rick Nix Like all leftists, Wally doesn't practice what he preaches. It is always someone else who has to make the sacrifices so he can continue his luxurious lifestyle.

Adrian N Suzanne Waters ...as long as he's not one of the "less people", right? People who advocate population control, never include themselves or their loved ones, in that scenario.

Michael Dubhthaigh Well the shutdown will stuff his dream. Lets see how much the worlds population grows by in... about the next 7 to 9 months.

Ted Douglas I missed the "NOT". Less people does mean a cleaner, more sustainable planet. Not rocket science!

Tony Mitchell Dont know what planet he's from sure know was which one he should be on

[Juliar]

But does it actually work ?


Can Australia's coronavirus contact tracing app COVIDSafe lift the country out of lockdown?
ABC Science / By technology reporter Ariel Bogle and health reporter Olivia Willis Posted Yesterday, updated 13 minutes ago


An illustration of the COVIDSafe app on a smartphone screen.

To speed up the process of contacting people who may have been exposed to coronavirus, the Federal Government is asking Australians to download its new COVIDSafe app.

The more people use the app, the message goes, the faster we can slow the spread of the virus and the sooner we can lift restrictions and return to the pub.

"The first job of the COVIDSafe app is to keep you safe," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in a press conference on Tuesday.

But how does a smartphone app that identifies who you've been near protect you from COVID-19?

Using an app to help disease contact tracing is largely unprecedented, so it's hard to know how effective it will be or even which technology works best.

In Singapore, where its contact tracing app TraceTogether has been operational since late March, there is still only limited understanding of its impact.

And while there are lingering concerns regarding the app's privacy and security, Adam Dunn, who leads biomedical informatics and digital health at the University of Sydney, said questions also remained about the app's accuracy.

"The privacy stuff is kind of an unnecessary diversion from what we really need to be worrying about, which is: does [the app] actually work?" Dr Dunn said.

Read on here

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... t/12217146

[brian ross]

My goodness, quoting the ABC? I thought you distrusted the ABC as a "left wing outlet of fake news" ?

[Juliar]

Oh dear, the dreary dearie is confused. If it works then use it.

[Juliar]

Will the morbid anti-Vaxxers become even morbidder anti-Appers ?



‘Anti-appers just as dangerous as anti-vaxxers’: Kenny
27/04/2020

VIDEO: Tracing App helping the vulnerable https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6152259538001


Sky News host Chris Kenny says public opposition to the government’s newly released COVIDSafe contact tracing app “is either silly or paranoid, or both”.

On Monday, Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy had said he was “so proud” of the “gratifying” number of Australians who have downloaded the COVIDSafe contract tracing app.

More than 1.13 million Australians have downloaded the app since its launch on Sunday evening, a result Dr Murphy labelled “exciting”.

“I signed up yesterday,” Mr Kenny said.

He said “anti-appers are just as dangerous as the anti-vaxxers, and they are just as selfish, making a silly stand for themselves that can only make this pandemic more problematic for the rest of us”.

“We have done the hard yards, shut off our borders, build up hospital capacity, improved our hygiene practices, and dramatically reduced the spread of the virus”.

“So, we need to get our country moving again, we need to gradually get back to work, gradually reopen businesses, gradually get back to sport and socializing.

“And the app will help, just by ensuring authorities know they can contact people quickly when there is an infection, so they can trace us and warn us that we need a test.”

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6152259538001