COVIDSafe App

Title Page
Table of contents
Summary
The COVIDSafe app in present context is one of the most important application that a person
living in Australia has in his/her mobile phone. The application helps to determine if the
opposite person to you in the range of Bluetooth range is a COVIDSafe user. The COVIDSafe app
works to slow the spread of COVID-19, the app is completely voluntary. It records the data of
the COVIDSafe app user who is in proximity of 1.5 meter for about 15 minutes. This app helps
to find close contacts of COVID-19 cases, who may have been exposed to COVID-19 knowingly
or unknowingly. This app is working as a helping hand to the government, health workers and
scientists from stopping the spread of the virus as the people of Australia are resuming the
normal life. Since the app is voluntary not all of the population in an area or region is sure to
have installed the app. This brings the limitation to control of the spread. Even though it has
been in controversy about the leak of personal data or tracking the individual with no consent
people for the sake of their lives and to help the country are using the application. Around 6
million downloads has been recorded with at least one tracking back via one download is seen.
Introduction
COVID-19 is a new strain of coronavirus which causes a disease. Coronaviruses are a large
family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans. In humans, several
coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections ranging from the common cold to
more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The most recently discovered coronavirus causes coronavirus
disease COVID-19. This disease was previously referred to as '2019 novel coronavirus' or '2019-
nCoV.' This virus originated from wet market of Wuhan City, PRC. This virus is now prevalent
worldwide causing pandemic damage. Thousands of people around the globe already lost their
lives because of the virus. As medication to the virus is still unknown, every country around the
globe is trying their best to limit the spread. 1
Australian government is doing its best to monitor the spread given the resumption of normal
life. Implementation of general rules such as social distancing (6 ft. apart), wearing mask,
washing / sanitizing the hand at regular intervals etc. is a priority. The Government has released
a application "COVIDSafe App" to ensure reduced spread of the virus. This is a mobile phone
application that is voluntary of use. This application helps the government body in contact
tracing. Example, “A” & “B” both have the application installed in their phones, both of them
are resuming the daily life with the safety guidelines in head. “A” unknowingly comes in contact
to a virus. In two days of interval “A” & “B” and 150 others were in close contact, which the app
stores the data. “A” is then admitted to the hospital and the app then notifies “B” and 150
others who came in contact to “A” on how to keep the spread within themselves and keep their
friends and family safe.
The COVIDSafe application is downloaded 6 million times in a month, and is used in at least one
effective exercise in touch tracing. The application has the primary objective of reopening the
economy of the country. Yet only 6 million updates to the program are a fourth of the total in a
country with a population of more than 24 million. Although the application has gained
popularity in a period of a month, it is still not feasible to everyone. Since the application is
voluntary, installing it in their phones isn't compulsory for people living in Australia. Some may
not have a smart phone to use the application.2

1
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses
2
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/17/covid-safe-app-australia-covidsafe-contact-tracing-australian-
government-covid19-tracking-problems-working
Every vision or work has two aspect, pros and cons. Similarly, the COVIDSafe application has
two aspect as well. The application in itself is providing huge aid to the Australian government
(Resuming economy), health workers and scientists by helping control the spread. It is keeping
the people aware about the contacts they are having in the normal life that has begun. But in
other hand is not reaching the adequate sample size required. As per the data by Statista, about
71.59% of smartphone penetration is seen in Australia, rest of the people don’t use the
smartphone. Non-smartphone users are deprived of the application benefits, which in return
hampers both the government and themselves.3
Primary concern of COVIDSafe is to make the tracking back of the personal easy and much
accessible to reduce the spread. The government has said that “The application will help people
get back to normal life with safety measures in mind to get the economy back on track”. Many
countries are in state of doing the same as Australia. The way of controlling the spread with less
of a personal contact and high efficiency is what government, health workers and scientist want
in the present context. The countries with high rate of cases like USA, India are in plan of
implementing the similar kind of ideas which will help them to get back on track when the
people start the new normal with safety measures.

3
https://www.statista.com/statistics/321477/smartphone-user-penetration-in-australia/
Body
COVIDSafe is built to improve contact monitoring by automatically recording user interactions
and consequently allowing a state or territory health authority to alert a user who has come
with an infected patient for 15 minutes or more within 1.5 meters. The COVIDSafe application is
developed in coordination of Department of Health, Australia with Department of Home Affairs
and Digital Transformation Agency. It was initially released in 26 th April 2020. The initial release
was an experimental phase, later on 5 th June 2020 it was stable released in both android and
IOS devices. The technical standards followed by the application are BlueTrace and Exposure
Notification Framework.4

Contact Tracing
The app is built on the BlueTrace (BlueTrace is an open-source application protocol that
facilitates digital user contact tracing to stem the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading. It gives
the TraceTogether app the power to track contact) protocol originally developed by the
Singaporean Government. A major focus of the design was the preservation of privacy for all
users. In order to achieve this personal information is collected only once at point of
registration and used only to contact potentially infected patients. User's identity cannot be
investigated by anyone except the Department of Health. Although it is commonly claimed that
the app only logs encounters longer than 15 minutes and closer than 1.5 meters, the app
actually logs most encounters indiscriminately, and it is only once the health authority receives
a contact log that it is filtered to meetings within 1.5 meters and longer than 15 minutes. 5

Data Collection
The main privacy concerns raised by the BlueTrace protocols presently being used by app are
also the centralized architecture of report processing. A user must submit the entire contact log
to a health authority administered server in a centralized report processing system, where the
health authority is then responsible for matching the log entries to contact details, ascertaining
potential contact, and ultimately warning potential contact users. This methodology also
presents some issues, primarily the lack of personnel in process reporting, resulting in a higher
occurrence of false positives and potential size issues, as a large number of incidents might
overload some devices. In addition, decentralized reporting protocols are less mature than their
central counterparts.6

4
https://www.covidsafe.gov.au/help-topics.html
5
https://www.covidsafe.gov.au/
6
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-14/experts-concerned-about-coronavirus-tracing-covidsafe-security/12245122
Due to the privacy concerns shown by the application it was later upgraded by some changes in
the protocol. Digital Transforming Agency was looking to transitioning the protocol from the
BlueTrace to Exposure Notification Framework (ENF). The change was brought about to sort out
the issues related to performance of third party protocols on IOS devices. ENF works at
operating system level with no any special privileges to third party applications, which resulted
in safer and much more workable form.7

Issues
COVIDSafe carried with it several problems like every other application would. In the present
sense, the application which is of high priority must be reviewed for flaws. During the time the
program was put in the background on IOS devices, early versions of COVIDSafe did not scan for
other apps, resulting in far less contacts being registered than was possible later in the newer
versions. It was unable to fetch new temporary IDs due to bug problems in the application,
which means the ID pool could easily be exhausted unless the phone was unlocked when the
code tried to refresh the pool. The application had issues to run in the background hampering
the data collection rate.8
COVIDSafe application requires an Australian mobile number to register, meaning foreigners in
Australia need a local sim card. People living in external territory of Australia were unable to
register to the application.

Privacy Concerns
The application was instantly tied up with broad criticism regarding possible user monitoring
privacy implications. Some criticism could be attributed to poor communication, but when the
implementation of the program was not made mandatory the concerns escalated. Some of the
privacy watchdogs (record checking sites) raised questions about the data that was collected
when the program was being activated and used. The concerns about privacy protection were
being posed, people were reluctant to use the app rather than being helpful. People felt
uncomfortable about the fact that they were being monitored by government bodies with no
individual consent.9

7
https://www.innovationaus.com/atlassian-and-the-covidsafe-team/
8
https://moworks.com.au/moment/2020-04-27-what-you-should-know-about-covidsafe-app-and-the-claim-your-identity-is-
safeguarded
9
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-14/coronavirus-app-government-wants-australians-to-download/12148210
Conclusion
COVIDSafe is the application which has been downloaded 6 million time in a span of less than a
month. It helps the government, health workers, scientist and the particular individual about
the contacts he/she has been in with who is a COVID-patient (with in 1.5 m for about 15
minutes). In early phases it was a bit of concern about data security, personal tracking without
the consent. People still who have issues with the strategy of the application are not using it.
Insecurity has been a major issue in people using the application, when news about tracking
with consent rose many deleted the application from their mobile phones. Only 76% smart
phone penetration is seen in Australia. There is no possibility that ever smartphone user has the
app. The remaining population with no smartphone or without the app are untraceable and the
data collection is hampered.
This application in other hand has been a boon to the control spread of virus to those who are
using it regardless of the controversy it is going through. The Australian Government published
this app to make public get back to normal days with safety measures applicable to get the
economy back on track. In a positive fact, every download has been able to trace at least one
contact. Australian people are getting back to the new normal, they are being helped along by
the application. It helps in minimizing the virus's spread and protecting vulnerable people in the
community, the application has the potential to ease work and travel restrictions more quickly.
However, this will require a take-up rate of at least 40% of the population which is not an easy
task to overcome. Clearing minds of the residents about the data security will be a major
challenge and those populations with no access to application will be a major issue too.
Recommendations
Make the people aware of the positive factors about the app in different sources such as social
media, television etc. Making the application’s graphic user interface easy and more convenient
than it is at the moment. Adding the option of recovered to the application which helps them
track back to the discharged patients. It is only available in the Android and IOS devices,
availability must be increased i.e. Windows phone too. It is dependent on the Bluetooth
connection which might fluctuate in its working capability so switching it to something
convenient might be an option. Bringing out the more enhanced coding for contact tracing.
Use of GPS must be made free in order to track the people with no cellular access to internet.
The app must have the facility to contact the medical personnel in order of appearance of
symptoms or be asymptomatic. Timely giving out online sessions on how to prevent yourself
from the disease. The application must be made easily accessible for those who are differently
abled (Blind) as voice over must be set, so that they can be familiar to how to use the app with
no help from other. The application must show about the ongoing details that is happening via
the app which makes the user aware of the current situation.