Covid Tracer: What use is the Government's app, really?

Wednesday, 20 May 2020

ANALYSIS: Now the Government's first version of its long-awaited Covid-19 tracing app is here, many are left wondering what all the secrecy was about. And when we'll start getting some explanations.

After weeks of delay, the Ministry of Health yesterday evening made an app called NZ Covid Tracer available on the App Store and Google Play. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday described it as a 'digital diary' to help people keep track of their movements to aid manual contact tracing efforts.

At Covid-19 alert level 2, almost all businesses were allowed to open provided they complied with public health guidance about physical distancing and contact tracing. The private sector scrambled to offer digital contact tracing registers for organisations, in the absence of a Government-sanctioned method.

Many Kiwis have since had to download multiple apps or fill in forms with their name and contact details as they go about their day. Dr Andrew Chen, an expert in person tracking technology at Auckland University, at the weekend said in an ideal world, the Government would have had an app ready to go at level 3.

Having a myriad of private sector methods raised privacy concerns and also risked putting the public off using contact tracing apps for good, he said.

**READ MORE:

* NZ Covid Tracer: What our coronavirus contact tracing app looks like

* Coronavirus: Government contact tracing app will launch Wednesday, PM says

* Coronavirus: Concerns too many tracing apps could do more harm than good, as NZ moves to level 2

**

Reinventing the wheel

In an attempt to provide some consistency, Wellington City Council and Dunedin City Council endorsed — and invested in — Rippl, made by Wellington-based software company, Paperkite.

Ardern has said the Government's app is just one of several versions planned for roll out, but at this stage it doesn't appear to add any value to the existing market.

When asked whether he would use Rippl or NZ Covid Tracer to sign in to a café, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said he hadn't really thought about it.

But he said the Ministry of Health was working with Paperkite to allow both apps to use the same QR codes — essentially complex, digital barcodes unique to businesses.

Given the similarities between the apps, and the fact Paperkite's Antony Dixon, had offered to collaborate with the ministry, it's worth asking why the public sector didn't make more of an effort to engage its private sector counterparts.

'All we want to do is make it easy for people,' Dixon told Stuff on Wednesday. His initial impressions of the NZ Covid Tracer app were that unlike Rippl, it requires people to enter personal details and those details are stored using Amazon Web Services infrastructure based in Sydney.

'Rippl is committed to migrating to New Zealand-based Catalyst Cloud infrastructure for the registration services,' he said. According to Tiriti Ethical Guide recently published by Karaitiana Taiuru, user and business data should be stored in New Zealand, he said. 

The app's primary function appears to be to help individuals understand their movements and easily share those with public health officials if necessary. It doesn't yet allow officials to alert users who are potential contacts of someone found to have been infected with the coronavirus. 

And it doesn't prevent businesses from having to maintain their own contact registers, Bloomfield clarified on Wednesday. 

'At this point, the app does not replace but rather complement other actions businesses are taking to record who’s been on their premises,' he said. 'Subsequent releases of the app will have functionality that will allow people to not only be registered but if there’s a case, notified.'

It's understood a Bluetooth feature will be added to the app in June, allowing users to automatically log each other as contacts if they are within close proximity for a decent amount of time. Overseas, Bluetooth apps such as Australia's CovidSafe have experienced many teething issues owing to the technology's complexity. 

Time for transparency 

Tom Barraclough, director and researcher at Brainbox Institute, said there's been a huge amount of trust placed in the Government, and now it's time for it to start talking.

'A lot of people have held off criticising the Government, to give it the benefit of the doubt. Now, I'm hearing there's a strong need for some frank, transparent, retrospective accountability about how this process has taken place.'

Software developers and others in the technology sector were 'literally sitting at home, waiting to help with this,' he said. 'There was such difficulty getting insight into what was going on in Government, which meant they couldn't have any input. 

'There's a real obligation now to tell us why they couldn't work on developing a solution in the open.'

While there would be some grounds for censorships such as free and frank advice and commercial sensitivity, there needed to be an explanation for the lack of communication and transparency with the private sector in recent weeks, he said. 

'Why didn't they do this process in the open? It could have been as simple as sharing a blog post, or a tweet, saying here's what we're thinking of doing, and asking for people's thoughts.'

While he had heard good things about how it worked, there was no reason to withhold so much information about its development, he said. 

'Now what we need is transparency. There will be important lessons to learn for the future about how the Government can work with the private sector.'

Confusion and contradiction abounds

Rick Shera, an IT law expert and partner at the law firm Lowndes Jordan, said unless using the app becomes compulsory, businesses will need to continue maintaining their own sign-in sheets. 

Currently, the app, along with others such as Rippl, doesn't comply with legislation passed under urgency ahead of level 2, he said. The strict requirements asked businesses to take down names, contact information and residential addresses of contacts. 

The Government's own sign-in sheet template didn't have a column for residential addresses. 

'No solution is perfect and the more we can do to contact trace quickly, the better.

'But one thing I think they should do is get rid of the requirement for residential addresses. It just doesn't make sense having that. We've got a regulation which doesn't work and people aren't abiding by, which isn't a good look.'

Alan Chew, managing director of Houston Technology in Hamilton, also contacted the ministry with ideas for apps based on QR codes. His contribution was acknowledged on the NZ Covid Tracing app, and the design was 'exactly as I had proposed with minor alterations,' he said.

But he said it was important for businesses to realise they'd need other tools to meet level 2 requirements. 

'Unfortunately, I think most businesses would think this app is all they need to meet all the requirements.'