Coronavirus: Australian government to use smartphones to track people

The Australian government is tightening things Down Under to control coronavirus spread in the country, with lockdowns and borders heavily enforced the Australian government and authorities.

Just like the current app deployment in Singapore, the Australian government is now forging through with plans to release an app to track coronavirus victims, and just exactly where they go. Australia is wanting to lift COVID-19 restrictions that have seen millions of people stop their lives -- work, running businesses, school and everything in between -- and this app, could be the solution.

The Australian government first said that it would be making the coronavirus tracking app mandatory -- but Australian government quickly hopped back a step or two. Australians saw the move as draconian, but Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison tweeted out that it wouldn't be mandatory.

PM Morrison explained that he wanted to make the coronavirus tracking app mandatory if it wasn't downloaded by enough people, as he said that 40% of the nations population would need to download the app to make it effective.

Morrison also said that "If you download this app you'll be helping save someone's life".

What exactly is the coronavirus mobile tracking app going to do? It is turning something that is a manual process right now, into a smoother digital-focused solution.

This is something Australian Government Services Minister Stuart Robert explained to the press, with the 'Covid Trace' app letting experts track the spread of coronavirus throughout Australia, and eventually it would allow the Australian government to ease the current COVID-19 lockdowns.

Robert explained: "All it does is it allows a manual process to be sped up digitally. Right now if you test positive to coronavirus, health officials will sit down with you and ask you to trace back where you were and who you have been with".

He continued: "It is really hard to try to remember the 90-year-old lady in the queue behind you at a shopping centre, or a family that was close by you for whatever purpose.There is no geolocation, there is no surveillance, there is no tracking. The app simply connects with another app".

"If those two phones are within 1.5m for 15 minutes, it simply swaps phone numbers and names. That information is held encrypted and securely on the individual's mobile phone. You control your own data stop and if you test positive to coronavirus, that information is shot up to a secure national health storage and given straight to state governments so they can contact individuals that may have come into contact with an infected person".

The idea of Australians being forced to have this app on their phone as 'mandatory' is worrying, to say the least. The Australian people are not wanting a mandatory new app forced on them, tracking their every move 24/7.

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