Will you download the contact tracing app?

hetuzozaho

GarIT wrote: »

It's 90% decentralised.

All the tracking, processing and notifying is done on your side.

You might have seen a page to enter 6 digits to say you were infected. Until you use that page it is 100% decentralised. If you get infected it is still 90% decentralised, and at that point tough I guess.

Yeah I get you, I think it just makes me think P2P like "serverless computing" always does too!

Anyway cool app, great transparency and looks like some good uptake.

Paranoid Bob

hetuzozaho wrote: »

When we confirm we have tested positive and we push our close contact ids from the app to the HSE, is the HSE not storing those Ids or is it just added to a queue of some sort and removed as data is sent to all phones. (every two hours someone mentioned). So stored for two hours?

I have not looked back through the thread to see if this has been explained before, but the data and process involved is something like this.

I have the app installed on my phone and in the course of the day I interact with five people who have the app; Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy.

My phone gives Julian's an ID: 68e89f8a-8c5f-4a3b-80b0-63dd8ff59d6f
Julian's phone gives mine an ID: c19ceb24-03b8-4c81-a2fa-bc3c0752a634

My phone gives Dick's a different ID: db13065a-f100-438b-a9e4-f2804a6d70f1
.. and his phone gives mine another different one: 05a176f9-fe9b-4cb6-b9d9-6fd2425350e5

And so one with Anne (6ceabb85-306b-4924-babb-4035f42a6a5d and 22929862-a363-4328-854b-19a7c39894b3), George (c0db3a78-0701-44c3-a199-5c6d7160e332 and 5431230a-f4b9-44e6-951f-9253fb1940a2) and Timmy (21c6970f-6f23-4430-a969-2b231409e0ed and 406282e8-86b6-49a1-a299-839b6759c791).

A few days later I fall ill and get a positive result for Covid-19. I instruct my phone to send my data to the HSE. It sends the following list:
68e89f8a-8c5f-4a3b-80b0-63dd8ff59d6f
db13065a-f100-438b-a9e4-f2804a6d70f1
6ceabb85-306b-4924-babb-4035f42a6a5d
c0db3a78-0701-44c3-a199-5c6d7160e332
21c6970f-6f23-4430-a969-2b231409e0ed

The HSE will store that data for at least two weeks and maybe longer; I don't know that detail.

Anne's phone downloads the list a few hours later and recognises the value 6ceabb85-306b-4924-babb-4035f42a6a5d, so it alerts Anne that she has been in contact with a positive case of Covid-19. She should then contact her GP for advice.

If I have agreed and configured my copy of the app to send my phone number and email address then that will be sent also, and that can be used by the manual contact tracers to do a further follow-up. My contact details will not be sent to other users of the app, only to the contact tracing team in the HSE.

That's it. There is no location tracking, no lookup of your phone book or contacts list, no integration with your social media accounts and no information transmitted to the HSE that is not strictly necessary to protect public health.

I get that people are worried about privacy. I work in information security and happily describe myself as professionally paranoid. This system genuinely adds a very small risk for a very large gain and I encourage everyone to install it.

robinph

El Weirdo wrote: »

Actually, you don't even know your codes - your phone does.

I was just referring to you/ your phone as being a single entity in order to try and confuse the bluetooth drone and their ray gun from targeting us.

ixoy

ixoy wrote: »

What are they saying and do they appreciate the irony of posting about it on Facebook?

One person mentioned the irony and they didn’t get the reference at all. They think this app is Big Brother watching them. Such ****ing dopes!

I already done a cull of the Bill Gates 5G wackos a few months ago. Think it’s time I took up reading again and put down the phone.

2smiggy

Pauliedragon wrote: »

I've been trying for 12 hours now with no luck. Maybe the HSE should have done a bit more. I've spoken to several people with Huawei phones today who are having trouble too. App not available in your country is the massage. Don't judge people too quickly. Last time I checked my address it was in Ireland.

https://goosed.ie/install-irish-covid-tracker-app/amp/

Try this

Geuze

Does this mean BlueTooth must be turned on all the time?

I usually only turn it on while driving.

plodder

I see I was causing some confusion with the term 'contacts list'. What I was referring to is the list of IDs broadcast by people you come into contact with - not your phone's address book.

Also, I saw some people were wondering about the exposure notification that you might get if someone reports a positive test. There is a video that shows what it looks like (briefly). I think it is quite a bit more than the kind of "notification" that Android or iOS generates and you are not likely to miss it, I would think as the app has some screens to display specifically when you acknowledge it, telling you what to do next etc.

Jim_Hodge

Excuse my total ignorance here, as I seldom use my mobile phone and just have it for emergencies. Does the app require me to use data/internet, as I never use any and just top up by €5 every six months? Not even sure my 8 year old phone will handle it.
Thanks.

Gooey Looey

Geuze wrote: »

Does this mean BlueTooth must be turned on all the time?

I usually only turn it on while driving.

Yes, you should leave it on, it doesn't drain battery (unless you have a dinosaur smartphone)

Gooey Looey

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Excuse my total ignorance here, as I seldom use my mobile phone and just have it for emergencies. Does the app require me to use data/internet, as I never use any and just top up by €5 every six months? Not even sure my 8 year old phone will handle it.
Thanks.

Doubtful it's available for an 8 year old phone

is_that_so

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Excuse my total ignorance here, as I seldom use my mobile phone and just have it for emergencies. Does the app require me to use data/internet, as I never use any and just top up by €5 every six months? Not even sure my 8 year old phone will handle it.
Thanks.

I don't think the phone will work with the app.

https://covidtracker.gov.ie/how-the-app-works

owlbethere

Stewball wrote: »

I have a Huawei phone and had no issues downloading it.

Another Huawei user here. No issues with the Huawei p30 lite and the app

293,941 people are feeling fine today.

plodder

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Excuse my total ignorance here, as I seldom use my mobile phone and just have it for emergencies. Does the app require me to use data/internet, as I never use any and just top up by €5 every six months? Not even sure my 8 year old phone will handle it.
Thanks.

You should be able to use the app if your phone:

- is less than 5 years old
- uses Apple's iOS 13.5 or higher or Google's Android 6.0 or higher

You may be out of luck

ixoy

Hah, the Waterford Whispers have it covered again:
Man Who Uses WhatsApp, TikTok, Google Maps, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook & Twitter Apps Has Privacy Concerns About Covid-19 App

Strawberry Milkshake

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

293,941 people are feeling fine today.

**** - that leaves 4.6 million infected!

hetuzozaho

plodder wrote: »

I see I was causing some confusion with the term 'contacts list'. What I was referring to is the list of IDs broadcast by people you come into contact with - not your phone's address book.

I think you just push up your ids not the ids you come into contact with - so the server has a list of infected ids. And everyone downloads that and checks if an infected id exists in their list of close contact ids.

Away With The Fairies

ixoy wrote: »

Hah, the Waterford Whispers have it covered again:
Man Who Uses WhatsApp, TikTok, Google Maps, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook & Twitter Apps Has Privacy Concerns About Covid-19 App

Find hot people in your area

robinph

Seems that Gibraltar have already got a skinned version of the Irish App, NI will be releasing their skinned version of it shortly and Wales is considering using it as well:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53322751

Biggest problem then will be for the app stores showing multiple versions of the same thing and confusing the issue as to which one each person should download.

listermint

robinph wrote: »

Seems that Gibraltar have already got a skinned version of the Irish App, NI will be releasing their skinned version of it shortly and Wales is considering using it as well:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53322751

Biggest problem then will be for the app stores showing multiple versions of the same thing and confusing the issue as to which one each person should download.

Its GEO locked though...

Paranoid Bob

robinph wrote: »

Seems that Gibraltar have already got a skinned version of the Irish App, NI will be releasing their skinned version of it shortly and Wales is considering using it as well:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53322751

Biggest problem then will be for the app stores showing multiple versions of the same thing and confusing the issue as to which one each person should download.

The app stores are working with local authorities to ensure only one contact tracing app can be downloaded in each country.
You cannot download the NHS app here and people in England cannot download the HSE app; the app store enforces that.

is_that_so

Deleted User wrote: »

**** - that leaves 4.6 million infected!

3.6m , under 16s don't count!

robinph

listermint wrote: »

Its GEO locked though...

No it isn't.

Downloaded and working perfectly fine in England today. Obviously not going to be getting any contact hits, but the app works.

It is available on both the UK and Ireland apps stores, but not outside of those.

plodder

hetuzozaho wrote: »

I think you just push up your ids not the ids you come into contact with - so the server has a list of infected ids. And everyone downloads that and checks if an infected id exists in their list of close contact ids.

Yeah, you're right. I don't think it matters for understanding how it works at a high level, but it is more efficient to do it that way because what they call the rolling proximity identifiers (the ids that are broadcast) can be calculated from the users own key, but you couldn't do that if what you uploaded was the RPIs.

robinph

Paranoid Bob wrote: »

The app stores are working with local authorities to ensure only one contact tracing app can be downloaded in each country.
You cannot download the NHS app here and people in England cannot download the HSE app; the app store enforces that.

I've downloaded the HSE one today and I'm not in Ireland or NI.

Paranoid Bob

robinph wrote: »

I've downloaded the HSE one today and I'm not in Ireland or NI.

OK, looks like it is available across Ireland and UK. Sorry about that.

Lurching

robinph wrote: »

Biggest problem then will be for the app stores showing multiple versions of the same thing and confusing the issue as to which one each person should download.

The app is very clearly called COVID Tracker Ireland on the app store.

wadacrack

We must have one of the highest uptakes in Europe per 1,000 within the first day. Great/positive response in general to it. Hopefully it helps

KyussB

fly_agaric wrote: »

I realise that and it wasn't what I was getting at. If the unique codes change too fast they cannot (on their own) represent contact. More work must be done somewhere, maybe by your own phone but then that will mean gathering more information from the devices surrounding it than just broadcast of random nonidentifying code. All getting a bit abstruse and I think we are talking past each other. I need to do more reading about this anyway.

No extra information needs to be sent, but if your own phone stores a timestamp with each detected contact, and it knows the list of UID's (and their sequence) identifying one specific covid case, then it can reconstruct that information from locally stored data.

Ya though, not important.

robinph

Lurching wrote: »

The app is very clearly called COVID Tracker Ireland on the app store.

If multiple apps come out for Ireland and each individual UK region though do you think people are really going to intelligent enough to download the correct version.

Only way is to have one app, and then if someone is clever enough to tell it where they live it changes local county level details that it shows. People are too stupid to figure out what version to download from an app store if presented with multiple versions.