Ireland launches COVID-19 contact tracing app based on Apple-Google API

AppleInsider

Ireland has launched a long-awaited COVID-19 contact tracing app after retooling the software to integrate elements of the Apple-Google Exposure Notification API.

Credit: BBC

Based on the Apple-Google framework that exited beta in mid-May, COVID Tracker Ireland will allow health officials to track and curb the spread of coronavirus in the country without sacrificing user privacy. It will send a notification to a user if they recently came into contact with another app user who tests positive for COVID-19.

As required by Apple's and Google's guidelines, downloading the app and participating in the program is completely voluntary. Further, users have full control over their data, which is anonymized and not stored on a central server.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said in a statement to The Journal that the app will allow "every single person to play an extra part."

"It will allow us to get on with contact tracing in a matter of hours," Donnelly added. "It will allow people who have the app to completely control their own data."

Contact tracing apps require a majority of the population to adopt them to be effective, and at least 82% of respondents to an Irish study conducted in June said that they would download the app, The Journal reported.

Ireland joins other countries such as Latvia, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, who have also launched Apple-Google Exposure Notification apps. Canada has also signaled that they plan to use the API.

Ireland's neighbor, the U.K., is also reportedly testing the Apple-Google system, though the country's contact tracing efforts are said to be in "disarray."

Amid a recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the U.S., there is still a lack of any type of contact tracing app based on the Apple-Google API in the country.

dutchlord

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

NumNuts

Already downloaded and running. 👌🏼

foobar

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

caladanian

...unlikely. Rather caused by a lack of knowledge. 

I don’t understand why so few countries use the Apple-Google-API to save lives in a very smart, easy and secure way. 

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

Metriacanthosaurus

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

spheric

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Yes, the idea of taking an action, however ridiculously minuscule, to benefit society rather than just oneself, is indeed an alien one to shockingly many people. 

Thankfully, there’s just enough normal, functioning human beings around to not make me lose hope for humanity entirely. 

GeorgeBMac

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Aside from being, as you point out, mostly worthless, it isn't even a contact tracing app.  It's a notification system that may or may not work properly.

larryjw

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Since the US has nothing how it works is theoretical only,  but by reports, the apps would require medical personnel to enter the results of covid-19 tests -- not the patient. 

So, we need to look to countries who have implemented it. 

I don't expect anything will be implemented in the US. The US has incredible pockets of competence and brilliance, but outside of those pockets, it's third rate in the many ways it counts. 

GeorgeBMac

spheric said:

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Yes, the idea of taking an action, however ridiculously minuscule, to benefit society rather than just oneself, is indeed an alien one to shockingly many people. 

Thankfully, there’s just enough normal, functioning human beings around to not make me lose hope for humanity entirely. 

That's today.

It didn't used to be that way.

Hopefully, as you point out, it won't be that way in the future.

Metriacanthosaurus

spheric said:

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Yes, the idea of taking an action, however ridiculously minuscule, to benefit society rather than just oneself, is indeed an alien one to shockingly many people. 

Thankfully, there’s just enough normal, functioning human beings around to not make me lose hope for humanity entirely. 

Save it. You're not normal. You're propagandized. Hopelessly. Cluelessly. Everyone else isn't the problem. It's you.

spheric

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

a) it depends upon people with positive test results reporting in. If you’ve downloaded and are running the app, why on Earth would you NOT report it if you were infected? There is literally no downside whatsoever to doing this. 

b) I don’t know about other countries, but the German app requires you to scan a QR code that you get with your test result before reporting a positive test. 

The app is useless only if nobody uses it. If people keep spreading lies and misconceptions, that goal is obviously achievable. 

In Germany, the number that kept coming up was that the app would be at least somewhat effective if 15% of the population used it. We’re at about twenty percent now, so...

spheric

Metriacanthosaurus said:

spheric said:

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Yes, the idea of taking an action, however ridiculously minuscule, to benefit society rather than just oneself, is indeed an alien one to shockingly many people. 

Thankfully, there’s just enough normal, functioning human beings around to not make me lose hope for humanity entirely. 

Save it. You're not normal. You're propagandized. Hopelessly. Cluelessly. Everyone else isn't the problem. It's you.

Oh. The people who AREN’T assholes are the problem. 

Novel approach. 

I’ll have to ponder that a bit. 

spheric

GeorgeBMac said:

Metriacanthosaurus said:

foobar said:

dutchlord said:

Zero chance I will use a Corona app

I hope you came to that conclusion by learning how the app works and weighing the possible privacy implications with the possible public good.

I came to the conclusion that it was worthless because it depends entirely on the user indicating, honestly, that they tested positive. There is nothing that stops anyone/everyone from claiming falsely that they did, or failing to report that they did. And that's if they use it at all. The idea is good, but its impossible for it to be even remotely effective beyond the proof of concept.

Aside from being, as you point out, mostly worthless, it isn't even a contact tracing app.  It's a notification system that may or may not work properly.

The whole point of this thing is that it maintains a profile of whom you’ve been in contact with, or rather, the randomised profile numbers of their beacons. 

This is done for privacy reasons, and because the anonymity could motivate people who actually read about what the app does and doesn’t do to install it. 

Sending out a list of numbers and distributing these to people using the app to see if there’s a match is not a terribly difficult thing to do, so assuming that there were at least some actual programmers at work, this part ought not be an issue. 

Due to the way Covid appears to spread mostly via “superspreaders”, it seems that an install base of about 15% should begin to make a difference.