The launch of the COVID-19 app – far from plain sailing
The implementation of a coronavirus ‘track and trace’ app in the UK has certainly not been plain sailing. Despite promises of a ‘world-class’ NHS contact tracing app, launch dates kept being pushed back until it was announced that the initial NHS app would be scrapped entirely. The UK would instead have to look to Silicon Valley giants Apple and Google for help.
With Silicon Valley help at hand, the new NHS COVID-19 app launched on Thursday 24th September, four months behind the first European apps, and has, at the time of writing, been downloaded over 12 million times.
The app tells the user to self-isolate for a fortnight if their phone detects that they have been near someone who was later found to have the virus. The app relies on Bluetooth exchanges between phones, which can determine the distance between phones as well as the duration of proximity. The system also relies on users updating their apps with any positive coronavirus test results they receive. If an alert is sent to an app user, the user will not be told who triggered the alert, nor will the authorities be able to identify either party. However, the authorities will be able to track the numbers of people who have been told to self-isolate.
Aside from contact tracing and alerts, the app offers the following additional features:
A venue check-in barcode scanner (which means users can be alerted if the venue is later judged to be the centre of an outbreak).
The means to check the virus risk-level in the app-user’s postcode
A symptoms checker tool
The means to order a coronavirus test and receive its results
A guide to the latest advice on local restrictions, financial support and related information
A countdown self-isolation timer
Despite the perks, the app is far from ‘problem free’. For the app to be effective, Oxford University have suggested that around a 60% uptake would be needed. High levels of uptake are however largely dependent on public trust and confidence in those rolling out the app: the Government. Tech thinktank, Ada Lovelace Institute predicts a high uptake may be hard to achieve given the series of “trust-diminishing scandals” over the summer. Individuals’ concerns about data privacy may not easily be quelled where trust in the authorities is already flailing.
Only days after the launch, another issue came to the fore: users reported an inability to upload virus test results from NHS hospital labs or Public Health England labs. This will result in the risk levels calculated for any designated area being inaccurate, as they will not include data from all forms of testing. The Department of Health and Social Care are currently working to fix this problem.
Finally, despite the recent introduction of penalties aimed at targeting those who breach self-isolation rules, the legislation does not apply to notifications served via the app. From 28th September, people in England can be fined £1,000 or more for breaching self-isolation rules. Under the same legislation, employers can be fined up to £10,000 for failing to prevent workers who should be self-isolating from going to the workplace. However, the legislation does not apply to notifications served via the app. Given that the app allows anonymity, there is no way to enforce penalties for non-compliance.