This article contains some key points about the new Covid Safe App for your Apple iPhone or Andoid phone.
It is not suggesting you should download and install it, that is entirely your choice – but there is a lot of misunderstanding, miscommunication and lack of clarity on some aspects of it, so this is an attempt to assist!
- If you don’t own a smart phone (or no phone at all), there is nothing to do.
- Installing the App is totally optional, there is no obligation and if you are in a totally isolated situation it probably won’t achieve anything anyway.
- People are running into issues registering because the phone number is in international format, so you leave off the leading zero & start typing from the 4!
- A programmer has reverse engineered the program, turning it into the source code and has confirmed it does exactly what we are told – but the government will shortly release this as well.
- Not often mentioned, but the data it collects is NOT uploaded to the Amazon server in Sydney in real time, this happens on request if you or someone you have been near has contracted the virus.
- You can remove the app from your phone at any time – if you have not been contacted to uploaded your data if requested, the App and it’s data are removed from your phone.
- Some people on social media have been saying it is impractical to keep the App running – this does not mean it needs to be the App currently on your screen to be working – apps run in the background (e.g. your mail program displays the number of unread messages, but is not necessarily on the screen), as long as you don’t close it by swiping it off the screen (iOS), then it remains running all the time.
- Some older phones (or phones that have an older version of iOS for iPhones or older versions of the Android operating system) may not work with the App (I am having trouble finding exactly what version is required, but it will be obvious if you try to install it)
For more information visit the Government Health Department Website covering the App via this link
Note: Visit this ABC News article on some follow up information that has become available a short time ago via this link!