[LINK] COVIDSafe a few observations

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Sat May 9 21:39:09 AEST 2020


>>> All in all the government doesn't seem to be pushing people very hard
>>> to download and use it [The App] or pinning its hopes on the thing.

On 9/5/20 9:09 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:
>> ... Perhaps the government is feeling nervous after the NBN, RoboDebt, the
>> Census, the medical records initiative, penetration of Commonwealth systems
>> by foreign agents, and various IT project failures, not to mention widely known
>> problems with the App on iPhone.
> 
> On the other hand, and as promised, they have released the source code for
> both of their versions fairly speedily here https://github.com/AU-COVIDSafe

"released ... fairly speedily"???

13 days after release, after 5m downloads and attempted installations???

It can be safely assumed that sanitisation has occurred before release.
No dead dogs, or dog-kicking apparatus, are likely to be found.

But they've given themselves time to obfuscate anything that they think 
prying eyes shouldn't see, and to do so in ways that make it difficult 
to confirm that obfuscation has been performed.

Frankly, I *wasn't* all that suspicious.  But 13 days?

_______________________

> And in typical Aussie GitHub fashion, no-one has yet found major problems:
> 
> For one example: in the Github Comments .. dgriffith 8 hours ago writes 😊
> 
> “So I skimmed it, and while I can see where it generates a UUID and stores that in it's log, and how it also logs other UIDs, I can't see where it keeps your mic open and kicks your dog and uploads your entire life history and precise GPS location to overseas servers. Are we sure this is the right version?”


-- 
Roger Clarke                            mailto:Roger.Clarke at 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



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