Installing That App !

The approval rating for that tracking app that seems a likely safeguard to the spread of the Coronavirus has been disappointing.  So far just sixteen percent of the population have taken the trouble to install it on their smartphones.

It delivers the wonders of modern technology as an active health benefit.  The app allows mobile phones to recognise one another anytime the phones of two people are within one point five metres of one another for more than fifteen minutes.  They simply exchange phone numbers, which would allow the health people to contact those who may have become infected once a phone owner comes down with the Coronavirus.

Strangely, a survey of two thousand Australians found 54 percent support for the app with just 37 percent strongly opposed.  Men were more likely to support the app than women, as were those in high income households and those who were married.   There was little difference in levels of support over age groups, states or between city and rural.

The universal reason for opposition seems to be a fear that the app may be compromised to gather data on our daily activities.  Some people are concerned that just just having a mobile phone allows overseas intelligence agencies to listen to our conversations and track our daily movements. That data has great value to the advertising industry in planning the type of advertisements likely to attract our attention and how goods would best be displayed in stores. We are under constant survey through the cctv network operating at street level and throughout shopping centres.

The government claims that it needs forty percent compliance to enable the app to deliver group safety and allow a relaxation of the lockdown.  We have fared better than many other countries and as we resume our former lifestyle it is vitally important that this virus not be allowed to breakout and create infected clusters.  This phone app allows the health people to contact others who accidentally came into contact with a carrier, by sitting near on public transport or waiting in a service queue.

We are assured that this app has no other purpose than to identify others who came within infection range of a carrier.  The information will remain active for twenty-one days and then be automatically deleted.  Whether the takeup reaches forty percent will have a big influence in to what extent the isolation regime will be relaxed.

We seem to be at familiar crossroads.  The majority of people see the benefit of this app but are yet to take the few minutes to actively download it on their phones.  As the daily numbers of those infected continues to fall many think the crisis is over and that is a reason to ignore applying the app.

That is the exact opposite of the truth.  The virus is still active and keeping the country safe depends on quickly identifying those who slip through the net and become infected by coming close to an infected person.   It enables the health people to give warning to stop an infected cluster forming.

Hopefully, this trickle of downloads will continue and that forty percent will be achieved.  It is probably the best public service a citizen can  provide to help Australia end the Coronavirus emergency  !