One million downloads of the COVID Tracker App since launch less than 48 hours ago

08/07/2020:

Figures from the HSE show that there have been one million downloads of the COVID Tracker App since it went live less than 48 hours ago.

The app, which was launched yesterday (Tuesday, 7 July 2020) by the Department of Health and the HSE, is designed to enhance existing contact tracing measures in Ireland and to help manage the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Commenting on the figures, Paul Reid, CEO, HSE said: “The app comes at an important time as we begin to move about more and will support us in managing future cases. I would encourage those who have not yet downloaded the app to do so, and for the 1 million people who have already downloaded the app, I would ask them to share it with their friends and families. The more people who download the app the greater its impact will be.”

The COVID Tracker App is now available to download from the App Store and Google Play and has three specific functions:

Digital contact tracing of close contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Allows users to record if they have symptoms.
Provide daily information about COVID-19 from a trusted source.

Speaking today, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD said: “Throughout this pandemic, the Irish people have shown great solidarity and they’re still showing it. One million downloads in less than two days is a huge achievement, and I want to thank everyone who has downloaded it, and especially the team who have worked so hard to develop it.

“Using this app means you are protecting yourself, you are protecting your family, you are protecting your friends, and you are protecting many people you don’t know. I’m asking you to take the two minutes and download it now.”

If a person using the app tests positive for COVID-19 they can choose to anonymously alert to other app users who they have been in close contact with, including people they may not know. Those who receive an alert will also have quick and easy access to advice and testing. This will support existing testing and contact tracing measures that are in place.

Fran Thompson, Interim Chief Information Officer, HSE, added: “The App augments our current testing and tracing effort it has been developed with privacy by design at its core, employing the decentralised model. Phones exchange random IDs, if you test positive for COVID-19 and are using the app, you can choose to alert other app users anonymously. The App’s success is down to the people of Ireland – Thank you.”

The app development process has been led by the HSE and the Department of Health, in collaboration with the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) and An Garda Síochána, together with technical partners from the Irish private sector and scientific partners from Science Foundation Ireland. Research conducted by Science Foundation Ireland shows that the majority of people in Ireland are in favour of an app with 82% of respondents willing to install it.

In advance of yesterday’s launch, the HSE and Department of Health published the Data Privacy Impact Assessment and source code for the app demonstrating the openness and transparency of the app technology.

08/07/2020: Irelands COVID-19 Tracker App is ‘On Track’ to surpass over 1 million downloads today. The App which has proved to be hugely popular, despite some concerns from privacy critical users and as of 8AM this morning, 865,000 users have downloaded the app across iOS and Android.

To help alleviate the publics concerns, the HSE have published detailed information in the hopes of being as transparent as possible, including the publishing of the Apps source code, see below:

As of 8am, 865,000 people have taken another step to push back Covid19 by downloading the #CovidTracker App.
A HUGE act of solidarity. Thank you so much 🙏
Please take 2 minutes today. Please download the app & help us all keep each other safe.
— Stephen Donnelly (@DonnellyStephen) July 8, 2020

07/07/2020: The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, joined Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, Paul Reid, Chief Executive Officer, HSE and Dr. Sarah Doyle, Specialist in Public Health Medicine, HSE HPSC to launch the COVID Tracker App for Ireland today. The app will enhance existing contact tracing measures, by enabling users to identify close contacts and to alert those who are using the app of the need for COVID-19 testing as quickly as possible.

Commenting on the role of the app, Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, said:

“Together we have made a huge collective effort in recent months to limit the spread of COVID-19. As we ease restrictions, many important aspects of Irish life are returning and we are able to access more services and to meet more people. The introduction of the COVID Tracker App will allow us to speed up reporting and tracing from the first onset of the symptoms of COVID-19, making app’s role in testing and contact tracing vital to the continued momentum of the reopening of Irish society and business.”

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said:

“Today we are asking the people of Ireland to download the COVID Tracker App. Until we have a vaccine, or an effective treatment, testing and contact tracing are vital to our ongoing collective efforts to minimise the spread of COVID-19. The app is integral to contact tracing, working in tandem with the key public health measures of social distancing, hand washing, covering our coughs and wearing face coverings, helping us to stay safe and to protect each other.”

Paul Reid, Chief Executive Officer, HSE said:

“The app will enhance the existing contact tracing operations. For those using the app, it can mean a reduction in the time it takes to trace close contacts from days to hours and, importantly, it can also help to identify close contacts who are not known to each other. Every additional contact that the app can trace will improve our existing contact tracing operations. By downloading the app, you are helping us to reach more people in a shorter time period and to provide the right advice and access to testing. This will increase our capacity to suppress the virus.”

Dr. Sarah Doyle, Specialist in Public Health Medicine, HSE HPSC said:

“The HSE testing and contact tracing operation continues to be critical to Ireland’s response to COVID-19. As society reopens, the COVID Tracker App represents a simple way that we can all work together to continue to suppress COVID-19. The app will support our capacity to trace close contacts quickly, which is essential in containing the spread of this virus.”

The COVID Tracker App is now available to download from the App Store and Google Play and has three specific functions:

Digital contact tracing of close contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Allows users to record if they have symptoms.
Provide daily information about COVID-19 from a trusted source.

You can download the app from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play Store.

Privacy and Data

The app has been developed with privacy by design at its core, employing a decentralised model. This means that it will record if a user is in close contact with another user by exchanging anonymous codes. If a person tests positive for COVID-19, they can choose to anonymously alert other app users who they have been in close contact with. Close contact data is stored on the users’ phone and not a government server.

In advance of today’s launch, the HSE and Department of Health published the Data Privacy Impact Assessment and source code for the app demonstrating the openness and transparency of the app technology.

For more information about the app and to view a series of simple explainer videos please go to https://www.covidtracker.ie/

Privacy and data security is very important to the HSE.

The COVID Tracker app protects the privacy of all app users. The app was designed to protect your privacy.

Protecting your privacy

The app:

does not collect your name, age or address
does not hold your phone number unless you choose to share it
cannot be used to track your location
cannot be used to check if you should be self-isolating
can only access information on your phone that you choose to allow
cannot be used to identify your close contacts
cannot be used to identify people who have tested positive for coronavirus

You choose what data you share

It’s always your choice to:

use the app or not
share data and information with us or not

You can:

change your preferences at any time in the app settings
use parts of the app without sharing any data at all
use, or not use, app features independently
remove or update any information you provided to the app, at any time

Any data that the app collects is stored only on your phone. No one can access it unless you choose to share it.

Any data you do share can help health professionals know more about the virus and help stop it from spreading.

What data is collected

The app collects and uses a combination of personal data and anonymous data.

Personal data

Personal data used by the app can be provided by:

you (if you choose to provide it)
your phone

Personal data you can choose to provide is your phone number, demographics and health-related data. You don’t have to provide any this data if you don’t want to.

Personal data provided automatically by your phone is your IP address. We do not need to use your IP address. We delete this data as soon as your phone sends it to us.

Your phone number

We will not know your phone number unless you choose to share it.

You may decide to share it if you want to get a follow-up call if you become a close contact of someone who has coronavirus.

You can enter your phone number into the app. You can change this setting at any time.

The app will only share your number with the HSE if you become a close contact. The HSE’s contact tracing team will then phone you to arrange a test for coronavirus.

The app will also share the most recent date that you were in close contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus. This is so we can give you the right health advice based on how long ago it has been since you were exposed to the virus.

The contact tracing team are also given close contacts’ phone numbers when they talk to people who have coronavirus. This means that you could get a phone call from them without sending them your number through the app.

Health and demographic information

If you use the COVID check-in symptom tracker on your phone we will ask you to share:

the county or town you live in
the age group you are in
your gender
your symptoms

If you share this information, it will be uploaded to the HSE and shared anonymously with the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

This information can help us to understand more about the spread of the virus

It’s always your choice if you want to share this data or not. You can change what information you want to share at any time.

IP address

Your IP address is a unique set of numbers that identifies your phone or computer when you use the internet. IP addresses are used so you can send and receive information online.

Your IP address is automatically shared every time you use an app or visit a website.

We do not need to use your IP address. We delete it from our server as soon as we receive any data that you share with us from the app.

Anonymous data

The anonymous data we collect includes:

data about how you use the app
data we use for contact tracing

Data about how you use the app

We collect data about how you use the app. This is called ‘app metric data’.

We collect it to improve the app and to understand:

how the app is being used
its impact in helping slow the spread of the virus

This app metric data does not reveal your identity. But it’s your choice if you want to share this data or not.

Data for contact tracing

For contact tracing to work, COVID Tracker uses technology developed by Apple and Google called Exposure Notification.

Exposure Notification enables your phone to generate and share anonymous IDs. These anonymous IDs are shared when you are in contact with other app users.

You can read more about the Exposure Notification system on the Apple or the Google website.

The app uses this anonymous data to tell:

how long you are close to another anonymous app user
the strength of other anonymous app users’ Bluetooth signal, to work out how far apart you were from them

This data will remain on your phone. It cannot be accessed by anyone unless you choose to share it. You will be asked if you want to share it with the HSE if you test positive for coronavirus.

Anonymous IDs shared with the HSE are deleted every 14 days. You can delete the app and all data held by it whenever you want.

We have worked with Apple and Google to ensure that the contact tracing functionality works effectively across the largest number of phones possible.

Read about how long we hold your data

Third-party companies that process your data

For the app to work we use the services of a few companies. These third-party companies process some of the app’s data, including your anonymous information.

See a list of third-party companies we work with that use your data

Safe, secure and compliant

We have created the app based on EU guidelines, EU recommendations on privacy, HSE standards and data protection law.

This means the app:

is safe and secure to use
is legally compliant
meets the standards expected to keep data secure and confidential

Contact tracing on the app is fully decentralised. The matching of anonymous random IDs happens on your phone. This means no one can track your location, your movements or who you have been in contact with.

Deleting your data

You can choose to delete the app and your data at any stage.

To do this:

Go to ‘Settings’ in the app.
Select ‘Leave’.
Tap on ‘I want to leave’.

This will delete the app and your data.

When the government declares that the pandemic is over the app will no longer work. You will be encouraged to delete the app and all of its data. It will no longer be available to download from any app stores.

Contact our data protection officer

The HSE Data Protection Officer (DPO) can be contacted directly at [email protected] or by phoning 01-6350 359.

Read about how to contact the Data Protection Commission if you wish to make a complaint

Transparency

As part of our commitment to transparency, you can view the:

Partner organisations

Organisations from Ireland and around the world worked together to develop the Covid Tracker App. They included partnerships around:

project governance and delivery
research
technology
commercial

Project governance and delivery

Department of Health
HSE
Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, Department of Expenditure and Reform (OGCIO, DPER)
An Garda Síochána

Research

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Economic and Social Research Institute Behavioural Research Unit (ESRI BRU)
Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Services (IGEES)
Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP3T, Switzerland)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Private Automated Contact Tracing (MIT-PACT)

Technology partners

Apple
Google
Amazon Web Services

Commercial partners

Nearform
Expleo
Information Security Assurance Services (ISAS)
EdgeScan

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