[LINK] Australia looks to 'go harder' with use of COVID-19 contact-tracing app | ZDNet

[Stephen Loosley]

Tony writes,
> Australia looks to 'go harder' with use of COVID-19 contact tracing app | ZDNet
> https://www.zdnet.com/article/australia-looks-to-go-harder-with-use-of-covid-19-contact-tracing-app/


And here’s what the New York times notes about this open-source app:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/16/world/coronavirus-news.html?


South Koreans trade privacy for a life without lockdowns.

Imagine you are at your favorite Starbucks when a text arrives on your cellphone warning you that a person previously found to be infected is also in the same shop

That sort of detailed alert regularly arrives on citizens’ smartphones in South Korea. Widespread testing coupled with the country’s super fast internet allows the government to trace individuals’ movements and warn the public of potential dangers in real time.

As a result, most restaurants, bars, churches — even the airports — remain open, and a national election took place this week. Social distancing and lockdowns do not exist. In a country of 50 million people only 220 have died from the virus, about the number who are felled on a quiet day in New York City.

But there is a trade-off. Big Brother is watching, and so is everyone else.

Testing is widely available, and anyone who receives a test must also install the tracing app on his or her phone.

Those who test positive are made to self-isolate for the duration of the illness.

The app allows the government to track the locations and contacts of infected people.

That information is then used to alert those who have the app on their phones — and that is almost everyone.

For those who are being tracked the degree of detail of their movements is stunning.

Recently, the residents of the Songpa District in Seoul, the capital, learned that an infected person from another city was visiting their neighborhood. Residents learned when the individual arrived, the hotel in which he stayed, the hospital he waited outside in his car and that he dropped by a 7-Eleven and a kimbap restaurant.

They also were able to breath a sigh of relief, knowing exactly when he left town.

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