COVID-19 tracing app launched by federal government
The government's COVID-19 tracing app has officially launched under a cloud of scrutiny over how the data will be stored.
At a press conference launching the app, dubbed COVIDSafe, chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy said it was an important part of the road back to normality.
Coronavirus: All the latest updates on COVID-19 for Tasmania
He said having the app would allow for better contact tracing and therefore would help him convince the National Cabinet to consider rolling back restrictions.
"No Australian should have any concerns about downloading this app," Professor Murphy said.
"It is only for one purpose, to help contact tracing if someone tests positive, that is all it will be used for."
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Health Minister Greg Hunt said the app will be available to download shortly and people will be able to register from 6 pm tonight.
Last week the government awarded the contract to store the data US tech giant Amazon.
Greens Senator Nick McKim said that decision would make it possible for the American government to access the data.
"Amazon can be compelled under the CLOUD Act to provide data to US law enforcement agencies under the control of Donald Trump, even if that data is held in Australia," he said.
"This government has repeatedly failed to ensure the security of data it has collected, and has made an art form of deliberately releasing people's sensitive personal information to media outlets for political gain."
The Greens website is hosted by Amazon but Senator McKim said no comparison could be made between the data from their website and the app.
"Greens websites do not seek, collect or keep the kind of highly private proximity data that this app will collect and store, so any comparison to the government's app is meaningless," he said.
A spokesperson for government services Minister Stuart Robert, who is in charge of the program, said legislation would make it illegal to share the data outside of Australia.
"It will be a criminal offence to transfer data to any country other than Australia," he said.
Security research Troy Hunt said it was not surprising Amazon had been awarded the contract.
He said he is not concerned about the American government accessing the data.
"We have laws that protect data that resides in Australian servers and we have international precedents of US governments being denied access to data that is in other data centres without the cooperation of the sovereign state where the data exists," Mr Hunt said.
Mr Hunt said it was hypocritical for the Greens to be criticising the use of Amazon while their own website is hosted by the same company.
"I wouldn't criticise their choice of Amazon that is just a very logical choice to make in cloud provider today and inevitably the Australian government has made a similar choice for hosting this data," he said.
"Whether you are hosting a website or you are hosting contact tracing data, that is encrypted as well, you can do either with a US based cloud provider on Australian premises with a high degree of confidentiality."
The app is voluntary and people will be allowed to use a pseudonym if they want.
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