[ The government studiously avoids any reporting of the numbers of
phones that have registered the app, how many of those are still in
contact with base, how much of the time they're on, the number or
proportion of new infections that have been associated with a registered
app, or the number or proportion of those that have resulted in an
upload. Nor whether any data has flowed to any of the State and
Territory contact-tracing teams, and if so whether the data was of any
value.
[ Following release of the app on 26 April, there have been 22 days and
c.330 new cases - an average of 15 per day, range 6-28:
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/daily-number-of-reported-covid-19-cases-in-australia
[ However, it was only 5 days ago, on 14 May, that the Chief Medical
Officer announced "It is ready to go, all the states and territories
have now signed up to use it":
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-13/coronavirus-tracing-app-covidsafe-now-fully-functional/12244616
[ There have been 12, 28, 20, 9 and 11 = 80 new cases in those 5 days,
but I've seen no statement that any data has actually flowed.
[ The only indicator reported below is odd: "10 per cent to 20 per cent
of users ... don’t regularly update the app on their phones".
COVIDSafe app gets important update
Denham Sadler
itNews18 May 2020
https://www.innovationaus.com/covidsafe-app-gets-important-update/
COVIDSafe has received an important update that fixed a number of bugs
and improved iPhone functionality. The Opposition and developers are now
calling on the government to encourage the near-six million Australians
who have downloaded the contact tracing app to update it.
The Digital Transformation Agency on Wednesday released an update for
the app, with a very broad description of what was included: “push
notifications made optional, improvements to Bluetooth security and
connectivity, accessibility enhancements, bug fixes”.
A further update was rolled out over the weekend removing the daily
notifications entirely.
Despite the broad wording, Australian developers who have been combing
over the COVIDSafe source code since it was released said that the
update included a number of fixes for security issues and bugs, and goes
a long way to fix the app’s performance issues on Apple devices.
The update fixed a vulnerability that could have allowed for tracking of
the unique identifiers through the app, software developer Jim Mussared
said, and also removed the potential for denial of service attack and
also greatly improved the functionality of the app while running in the
background on iPhones.
There have been muddled and contradictory messages from the government
and DTA over COVIDSafe’s performance on iPhones and effectiveness when
not running in the foreground. The update has gone a long way towards
fixing these issues, Mr Mussared said.
“I’m almost disappointed for the DTA that they can’t get out there and
scream from the rooftops because unfortunately they said it was never
broken,” he said.
“There has to be some admission of the way they addressed serious
security issues, and it would be really wonderful if they could say they
fixed the iPhone. Now it works as well as they said it used to.
“That’s important because people are not installing the app because they
think it doesn’t work and they haven’t told people it has been fixed.”
The government’s attention and public communications have still been
focused on trying to convince more Australians to download the COVIDSafe
app, with restrictions easing around the country.
But there needed to be more focus on ensuring everyone who has already
downloaded it to proactively update the app if they do not have these
turned on automatically, shadow assistant minister for cybersecurity Tim
Watts said.
“An important update to the COVIDSafe iPhone app was released today
improving both the security and the ability of the app to register
contacts,” Mr Watts said.
“While the PM regularly urges people to download the app he’s said
nothing about the need for people to update this app,” he said.
Speaking in Parliament last week, Mr Watts said that if the Apple and
Google API for contact tracing app is incorporated into COVIDSafe, there
would need to be a significant campaign to ensure enough people update
the app.
“It’s now important that the government prioritises incorporating the
Google-Apple API iOS integration as soon as possible to maximise the
number of potential contacts caught. Once this new version is released,
we’ll also need a new public information campaign to encourage people to
update the app to catch the 10 per cent to 20 per cent of users who
don’t regularly update the app on their phones,” he said.
“This app could play an important role in helping us move beyond the
current coronavirus restrictions, so it’s important that the government
gets its implementation right.”
--
Roger Clarke mailto:roger.cla...@xamax.com.au
T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com
Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W.
Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
_______________________________________________
Link mailing list
Link@mailman.anu.edu.au
http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
