Dr Ashley Bloomfield is reassuring Kiwis over the privacy of the Government’s new Covid-19 contact tracing app.
The NZ Covid Tracer app was officially launched this morning, but was released early on app stores last night for both Apple and Android phones.
Many have been concerned about the privacy of their data being stored on such an app, but the Director-General of Health has this morning reassured New Zealanders of its security.
Dr Bloomfield told TVNZ1’s Breakfast that information stored on the app will only be used for contact tracing if someone has been identified as a contact.
“You register your contact details, which are then held by the Ministry of Health in a secure database and only used for contact tracing if you are identified as a contact,” says Dr Bloomfield.
“That data is only stored on your phone and you release that if you are contacted because you are a contact of a case. And you can choose whether or not to release that information, which will then be able to be used to help identify where you’ve been and who other contacts could be.”
He says the Ministry of Health has had a privacy impact statement done with the Privacy Commission.
"The only information that we will hold here at our national close contact tracing centre are your contact details."
The app works by scanning QR codes on official NZ Covid Tracer posters. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has described the app as a "digital diary" to help people keep track of where they've been and when.
Data older than 31 days is automatically deleted off the app.
Not usually fans of sharing their information on mobile apps, Breakfast presenters John Campbell and Anna Burns-Francis also aired their concerns, though ultimately believing their information will be safe on the app.
"I don't really like sharing my details on apps and I keep my apps pretty slim on my phone ... but I read the details around the information and the way it holds that information and I feel quite comfortable with it," said Burns-Francis.
Campbell agreed with his co-host. "I'm like you: I just think a lot of apps, I just think, 'Nah, you want to know way too much about my phone.'... But they are really explicit that they're not doing that to us.
"Contact tracing is everything in Level 2, everything. And so if someone has it and is spreading it as we speak, on a bus or in a cafe or wherever the hell they are, we need to know where you are ... well who was near that person," said Campbell.
The Ministry of Health says the app is being updated in early June 2020, but the same privacy rules will apply. The update will allow people to electronically transmit their digital diary to the NCCS.
Another update will see Kiwis receive a notification if they have been at the same location at the same time as someone who has Covid-19.
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