Remember that COVIDsafe app the federal government told us would help with coronavirus contact tracing if millions of Aussies downloaded it? Yeah well, it’s not doing so great…
The COVIDsafe app, which cost taxpayers $2 million to build and launch, hasn’t helped detect a single case of COVID-19 that hadn’t already been detected through manual tracing.
It may seem like a long time ago, but you’ll recall in April when Scomo told us that “millions and millions” of people would need to download for us to get back to normality.
Well we listened to the PM, and the app has been downloaded 6.44 million times since April 26, but as SMH reports it really hasn’t done its job… like, at all.
The news of the app’s abject failure to deliver on its promised function couldn’t really come at a worse time, especially for Victoria where 49 new cases were reported overnight and second wave looks to be underway.
Last week the Victorian government extended its state of emergency and ramped up restrictions, and now Senator Rex Patrick from the Centre Alliance has accused the government of being “dishonest” about how well the app works.
So what’s gone wrong with the COVIDsafe app?
According to testing data provided to the Senate, the app is still experiencing serious functionality issues, especially on iPhones. Data showed that a locked iPhone it only detected other nearby iPhone app users 25-50% of the time.
There have also been issues with sharing data between iPhones and Androids, especially if it was running in the background… which I’d hazard a guess is almost ALL the time.
In addition, the rollout of the app was considered by many to be a rush job, with several experts telling Crikey back in May there were several issues with its source code.
“The current app is clearly not working well enough and the government is being secretive about how often it has actually made a difference,” added former Labor leader and current government services spokesperson Bill Shorten.
“COVIDSafe has had major problems from the start like not working properly on iPhones … After millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent, the app would want to start showing some proper results soon for it not to be added to the pile of Stuart Robert’s disasters.”
