Australian gov’t decommissions COVIDSafe contract tracing app

The Australian Department of Health and Aged Care is asking users to delete the contact tracing app COVIDSafe on their mobile phones as it is decommissioning the app after two years.

In a note to users, the department said the app is getting scrapped as it is “no longer required” to prevent or control the spread of COVID-19.

The COVIDSafe app is now unavailable to download on major app stores. 

As the data store administrator, the department is also working to delete all COVIDSafe app data, including registration information, encrypted user IDs, device diagnostic information and contact data, from the National COVIDSafe Data Store. Deleting the app will automatically remove all information from a user’s device.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The decision to decommission the COVIDSafe app comes months after government-backed research disclosed that it found the app unhelpful for the country’s pandemic response. The study, which was conducted in New South Wales, noted that the app has lower-than-expected uptake; poor diagnostic performance; and low perceived usefulness by public health staff. 

Even the federal government last year admitted that COVIDSafe had been “rarely” used by citizens during its first 12 months of launch. Introduced in April 2020, the Bluetooth-based app had around seven million registered users.