[LINK] OT: Has any COVIDsafe data actually reached contact-tracers?

[Roger Clarke]

[ The government studiously avoids any reporting of the numbers of 
phones that have registered the app, how many of those are still in 
contact with base, how much of the time they're on, the number or 
proportion of new infections that have been associated with a registered 
app, or the number or proportion of those that have resulted in an 
upload.  Nor whether any data has flowed to any of the State and 
Territory contact-tracing teams, and if so whether the data was of any 
value.

[ Following release of the app on 26 April, there have been 22 days and 
c.330 new cases - an average of 15 per day, range 6-28:
https://www.health.gov.au/resources/daily-number-of-reported-covid-19-cases-in-australia

[ However, it was only 5 days ago, on 14 May, that the Chief Medical 
Officer announced "It is ready to go, all the states and territories 
have now signed up to use it":
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-13/coronavirus-tracing-app-covidsafe-now-fully-functional/12244616

[ There have been 12, 28, 20, 9 and 11 = 80 new cases in those 5 days, 
but I've seen no statement that any data has actually flowed.

[ The only indicator reported below is odd:  "10 per cent to 20 per cent 
of users ... don’t regularly update the app on their phones".


COVIDSafe app gets important update
Denham Sadler
itNews18 May 2020
https://www.innovationaus.com/covidsafe-app-gets-important-update/

COVIDSafe has received an important update that fixed a number of bugs 
and improved iPhone functionality. The Opposition and developers are now 
calling on the government to encourage the near-six million Australians 
who have downloaded the contact tracing app to update it.

The Digital Transformation Agency on Wednesday released an update for 
the app, with a very broad description of what was included: “push 
notifications made optional, improvements to Bluetooth security and 
connectivity, accessibility enhancements, bug fixes”.

A further update was rolled out over the weekend removing the daily 
notifications entirely.

Despite the broad wording, Australian developers who have been combing 
over the COVIDSafe source code since it was released said that the 
update included a number of fixes for security issues and bugs, and goes 
a long way to fix the app’s performance issues on Apple devices.

The update fixed a vulnerability that could have allowed for tracking of 
the unique identifiers through the app, software developer Jim Mussared 
said, and also removed the potential for denial of service attack and 
also greatly improved the functionality of the app while running in the 
background on iPhones.

There have been muddled and contradictory messages from the government 
and DTA over COVIDSafe’s performance on iPhones and effectiveness when 
not running in the foreground. The update has gone a long way towards 
fixing these issues, Mr Mussared said.

“I’m almost disappointed for the DTA that they can’t get out there and 
scream from the rooftops because unfortunately they said it was never 
broken,” he said.

“There has to be some admission of the way they addressed serious 
security issues, and it would be really wonderful if they could say they 
fixed the iPhone. Now it works as well as they said it used to.

“That’s important because people are not installing the app because they 
think it doesn’t work and they haven’t told people it has been fixed.”

The government’s attention and public communications have still been 
focused on trying to convince more Australians to download the COVIDSafe 
app, with restrictions easing around the country.

But there needed to be more focus on ensuring everyone who has already 
downloaded it to proactively update the app if they do not have these 
turned on automatically, shadow assistant minister for cybersecurity Tim 
Watts said.

“An important update to the COVIDSafe iPhone app was released today 
improving both the security and the ability of the app to register 
contacts,” Mr Watts said.

“While the PM regularly urges people to download the app he’s said 
nothing about the need for people to update this app,” he said.

Speaking in Parliament last week, Mr Watts said that if the Apple and 
Google API for contact tracing app is incorporated into COVIDSafe, there 
would need to be a significant campaign to ensure enough people update 
the app.

“It’s now important that the government prioritises incorporating the 
Google-Apple API iOS integration as soon as possible to maximise the 
number of potential contacts caught. Once this new version is released, 
we’ll also need a new public information campaign to encourage people to 
update the app to catch the 10 per cent to 20 per cent of users who 
don’t regularly update the app on their phones,” he said.

“This app could play an important role in helping us move beyond the 
current coronavirus restrictions, so it’s important that the government 
gets its implementation right.”


-- 
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