Would you install and use an NHS Covid tracking app?

[Vanden Saab]

pip t said:

Except it's not capable of doing that. And even if it was, the way it's written and the way it works means that if you delete it, all the data is deleted. Re-install it, and bingo, you have a clean app to go to the pub with.

Really?

[plasticpig]

djohnson said:

I’m perhaps being dim but I can’t quite see how the QR code thing works. I assumed that prior to the app when I simply gave my name and number to the pub if someone who’d been there at the same time tested positive then I’d get a call from ‘track and trace’. However if I scan the QR code at the pub then all it does is record on the app on my phone that I was in the pub. Ok if I get Covid and have to provide details of who I’ve been in contact with then it’d help to remind me that I’d been in the pub, but then what? They won’t have a list of names of who was in the pub as well since that’ll all be on peoples phones? Ok the Bluetooth functionality may well pick up a few people who were also in the pub but it’d do that whether I scan the QR code or not. Am I missing something?

You scan the QR code with the app. A unique ID of the venue is stored on your phone. The phone will poll the central server for a period of time to see if the venue has been flagged as an at risk venue (some one who attended the venue on the same day you scanned the QR code has tested positive). You are assumed to have left the venue by midnight and there is no option to sign out of a venue.

If a positive match is found then you receive a notification. As I understand it there is no reason to self isolate based on a notification telling you some one has visited the same venue who has tested positive for Covid.

[plasticpig]

Vanden Saab said:

Really?

Yes. The venues you visit are stored on your phone not a central server

[stevensdrs]

plasticpig said:

Vanden Saab said:

Really?

Yes. The venues you visit are stored on your phone not a central server

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

[rxtx]

If you have a phone your location is already easily tracked.

The amount of people posting thinking all their contacts and all their personal data is being passed on *because of this application*, and don't realise that it's a bit late for that, is a rather astounding.

[plasticpig]

stevensdrs said:

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

[rxtx]

plasticpig said:

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

Thank you.

[djohnson]

plasticpig said:

djohnson said:

I’m perhaps being dim but I can’t quite see how the QR code thing works. I assumed that prior to the app when I simply gave my name and number to the pub if someone who’d been there at the same time tested positive then I’d get a call from ‘track and trace’. However if I scan the QR code at the pub then all it does is record on the app on my phone that I was in the pub. Ok if I get Covid and have to provide details of who I’ve been in contact with then it’d help to remind me that I’d been in the pub, but then what? They won’t have a list of names of who was in the pub as well since that’ll all be on peoples phones? Ok the Bluetooth functionality may well pick up a few people who were also in the pub but it’d do that whether I scan the QR code or not. Am I missing something?

You scan the QR code with the app. A unique ID of the venue is stored on your phone. The phone will poll the central server for a period of time to see if the venue has been flagged as an at risk venue (some one who attended the venue on the same day you scanned the QR code has tested positive). You are assumed to have left the venue by midnight and there is no option to sign out of a venue.

If a positive match is found then you receive a notification. As I understand it there is no reason to self isolate based on a notification telling you some one has visited the same venue who has tested positive for Covid.

Thanks

[skinnyman]

My employer is mandating the app be downloaded, and a QR code scanned as we come into work every morning. I've no idea how they're hoping to do this, they certainly cannot mandate I install anything on a personal device, but then, I guess now isn't the time to be the guy rocking the boat, so I guess I'll dig my old S7 out the draw, pop in a Giffgaff SIM, turn phone on to access building, then turn off until the next day.

[NDA]

AstonZagato said:

, I'm intrigued to know how many people would be happy to be tracked, if there was a government sanctioned app which enabled a lower lockdown regime.

I downloaded it today and will not be worrying that the gubbermint is selling my data to the Russians. I also know that the Americans really did land on the moon.

The app is the only thing we have at the moment and anyone with a sense of civic duty should be using it.... if it helps prevent one single person (stranger or otherwise) getting infected, then it's helped.

As to some threatened fascist conspiracy to control us? Er, no.

[kippertie]

skinnyman said:

My employer is mandating the app be downloaded, and a QR code scanned as we come into work every morning. I've no idea how they're hoping to do this, they certainly cannot mandate I install anything on a personal device, but then, I guess now isn't the time to be the guy rocking the boat, so I guess I'll dig my old S7 out the draw, pop in a Giffgaff SIM, turn phone on to access building, then turn off until the next day.

Why ?

I will install and use it fully with zero problems or worries.

[Welshbeef]

plasticpig said:

stevensdrs said:

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

Can you delete this post in case it encourages those who don’t want to follow the guidance and play the system please.

[rxtx]

Welshbeef said:

Can you delete this post in case it encourages those who don’t want to follow the guidance and play the system please.

I think those people have more problems than a diagram they couldn't even follow.

[pip t]

Welshbeef said:

plasticpig said:

stevensdrs said:

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

Can you delete this post in case it encourages those who don’t want to follow the guidance and play the system please.

I’m sorry, I don’t like to pick fights with people, but that’s an outrageous request. The app is not mandatory. If a user does use it, it clearly gives them the option to delete their data/ switch it off should they wish to. It’s not ‘playing the system,’ it’s privacy respecting functionality deliberately built into the system.

That document is freely published and in the public domain, as are many more layman explanations of the functionality.

Why on earth do you want to suppress freely available public information?!

Edited by pip t on Friday 25th September 01:48

[Cold]

Does the app rely on a human person informing the "system" that they've contracted CV19 before the alert ball starts rolling?

For instance, on Tuesday I grab a sandwich at Costa for lunch, drop a parcel off at the Post Office, buy some milk on the way home, have a pint at my local before going to the cinema in the evening. Normal wet Tuesday stuff.

Come Friday I'm feeling bleh with at least two of the Covid symptoms. Is it up to me hit the Red Button to begin the chain reaction of alerts?

[GT03ROB]

Welshbeef said:

plasticpig said:

stevensdrs said:

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

Can you delete this post in case it encourages those who don’t want to follow the guidance and play the system please.

How does anyone putting that up help somebody play the system? If they don't want to follow the guidance that will make no difference. I won't be installing the app as I don't have an iPhone new enough to load it. and even if I did I still wouldn't load it.

Aside from which I'm in a proper police state where they do bug my phone & know where I am! Hence I don't need to load a stupid app that won't work to get in a bar or restaurant!

Edited by GT03ROB on Friday 25th September 06:50

[768]

Welshbeef said:

plasticpig said:

stevensdrs said:

What evidence do you have for that assertion.?

The source code for the app is in the public domain. I spent a few hours going through the source code and reading the documentation:

Can you delete this post in case it encourages those who don’t want to follow the guidance and play the system please.

You've excelled yourself there.

[croyde]

So you are presumed infected via Bluetooth, so then you have to sit at home for 14 days probably with no pay.

Day 15 you pop to the shops, get on a bus, go to work, walk down a street. At some point your phone gets within 2m of a phone that belongs to someone who is about to be tested positive.

Back inside you go for 14 days.

Rinse and repeat.

This isn't a way to get society up and running. We'll end up with millions of people stuck indoors despite having nothing wrong with them.

[grumbledoak]

croyde said:

This isn't a way to get society up and running. We'll end up with millions of people stuck indoors despite having nothing wrong with them.

Yes, but it won't be the government locking them up. It won't be a lockdown or a police state or martial law. It will "just" be a "health precaution".

Over and over again.

[thetapeworm]

Cold said:

Does the app rely on a human person informing the "system" that they've contracted CV19 before the alert ball starts rolling?

For instance, on Tuesday I grab a sandwich at Costa for lunch, drop a parcel off at the Post Office, buy some milk on the way home, have a pint at my local before going to the cinema in the evening. Normal wet Tuesday stuff.

Come Friday I'm feeling bleh with at least two of the Covid symptoms. Is it up to me hit the Red Button to begin the chain reaction of alerts?

The app allows you to enter your test results, presumably this would then trigger the matching of the randomised temporary codes, look at risk based on their algorithm and then notify those at risk.

They can then choose to ignore this, panic, delete the app and burn their phone... or keep a closer eye out for symptoms and minimise contact with others.