COVID19 Tracking App - would you use one?

[BobL]

There's a lot of talk about using an app to track COVID19.

If the model adopted was one where.
Every person you come into contact with for more than about 15 minutes, and is also running the app, is recorded/encrypted by your phone and likewise for the phone of the other person records you.
Then let's say you get infected. You then voluntarily submit your phone to the relevant health authorities so they can down load and decrypt the contact details of the people who you have been in contact with for more than 15 minutes over the last two weeks.
You never see the list of who you might have infected and the other persons never know it was you that might have infected them.
You also get to delete the app whenever you like and App self delete including data after say 6 months?.

Would you use such an app?

[Fekit]

Considering the levels of corruption, and general all round self serving behaviour, that our politicians and political systems have demonstrated over the years, the answer has to be an unequivocal NO.

assured of a reasonable level of security

LOL

You also get to delete the app whenever you like

LOL

App self delete including data after say 6 months

LOL

Next it'll be, oh but if everyone used the app we'd maybe be able to identify witnesses at a crime scene..............

You'll notice Scotty from marketing already using the BS enticements.......well if enough people sign up then we may be able to relax some restrictions..............

No, just no.

[BobL]

Please remember to vote - most members are unlikely to read the posts and more likely to look at the results

[Moti]

Like you'd trust anything promoted by Stuart 'my bad' Robert or Peter 'I stopped the boats (but not this one that actually mattered)' Dutton.

[markharrison]

As the technique has been described (and I am a software engineer and have been for a reallllllly long time) and the data that has been described as going to be recorded; my answer is yes.

Does this mean that this data could not be misused? No. I can think of a couple of ways this could be misused. However, the actors would have to have sufficient motivation and significant resources. Pretty much a state actor (like the No Such Agency) or a third party funded and resourced by a state actor.

Furthermore, they still need to get the data recorded on your device. If that data is stored encrypted, that data will be useless (for any period of time that the data is meaningful) if encryption is done properly.

If a state actor was that interested in my movements; they really would not need to go to this trouble.

As a rule I am sceptical of the conservative parties of Australia. This is not something I am too concerned about (as opposed to not using it) because -- and here is the real kicker:

Nobody has yet made a vaccine for any coronavirus. Nobody.

An engineering solution to track and trace to minimise and manage risk will almost certainly be available before a vaccine can be created; assuming a vaccine is even possible.

People (myself included) are very supportive of the current program. However, there will be a point where that support will end for a significant portion of the population. Then?...

[A Duke]

Hi,
I do not own mobile phone and have no reason to want one, so there for my answer is NO!

Regards

[ian]

I do not own mobile phone and have no reason to want one, so there for my answer is NO!

Try this thought experiment

You don't own a Covid-19 app enabled mobile phone -- result you can't leave your house for any reason.

A pretty good way to "encourage" you to obtain a mobile phone.

[ian]

As the technique has been described (and I am a software engineer and have been for a reallllllly long time) and the data that has been described as going to be recorded; my answer is yes.

Does this mean that this data could not be misused? No. I can think of a couple of ways this could be misused. However, the actors would have to have sufficient motivation and significant resources. Pretty much a state actor (like the No Such Agency) or a third party funded and resourced by a state actor.

Furthermore, they still need to get the data recorded on your device. If that data is stored encrypted, that data will be useless (for any period of time that the data is meaningful) if encryption is done properly.

Not sure if the University of Newcastle counts as a state actor, or one funded and resourced by a state actor
Outrage as University of Newcastle to track student attendance using mobile phones - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Beardy]

Like you'd trust anything promoted by Stuart 'my bad' Robert or Peter 'I stopped the boats (but not this one that actually mattered)' Dutton.

I would not make a decision on this based on your own personal political persuasions. Whatever the gubberment of the day is will use the information in the same manor

[Fuzzie]

An app is predicated on the assumption we are all smart phone carrying persons at all times. This may be true for millennials but my greatest usage of a mobile is to receive security codes when I'm seated in front of a PC doing stuff online. I never bother taking a mobile on a morning walk down the beach for instance which is often the most crowded location I am most days and the place I am most likely to be bumped into or have sweat blobs flung at me by some inconsiderate passing jogger. Cyclists and joggers always seem to believe they have the right of way on the walking tracks.

[Beardy]

An app is predicated on the assumption we are all smart phone carrying persons at all times. This may be true for millennials but my greatest usage of a mobile is to receive security codes when I'm seated in front of a PC doing stuff online. I never bother taking a mobile on a morning walk down the beach for instance which is often the most crowded location I am most days and the place I am most likely to be bumped into or have sweat blobs flung at me by some inconsiderate passing jogger. Cyclists and joggers always seem to believe they have the right of way on the walking tracks.

Have a look around you on your morning walk and you will see you are now very much in a minority group

[Fuzzie]

Have a look around you on your morning walk and you will see you are now very much in a minority group

Not around here. Only a minority of joggers and virtually no surfers are phone equipped, if they are carrying it's more likely to be a gopro! I'd say maybe only 50% of early morning walkers are visibly carrying phones.

[Drillit]

Yes.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

I'm another who says NO. The idea is good, but it'd establish a precedent for future, more dubious implementations.

Try this thought experiment

You don't own a Covid-19 app enabled mobile phone -- result you can't leave your house for any reason.

A pretty good way to "encourage" you to obtain a mobile phone.

Try this thought experiment.

You don't own a mobile phone, let alone a Covid-19 enabled one, because since the retirement of 2G it's as useless as tits on a bull... there's no coverage in your area for quite a few km's in any direction.

Such a housing restriction'd be a pretty good way to "encourage" you to move into an area of greater population density.

[markharrison]

Not sure if the University of Newcastle counts as a state actor, or one funded and resourced by a state actor
Outrage as University of Newcastle to track student attendance using mobile phones - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Different end-goal. Totally different technique. And it is optional.

My assessment of the merits of this is based on the described technical detail proposed. Not what other organisations have done, nor what other techniques could be used.

The UK is proposing something I would be opposed to. Centralised collection of data in real time. That is an Orwellian nightmare! The worst part is that they would be swamped with useless data that would make the job of tracing orders of magnitude more difficult just because of the sheer volume of data.