COVID-19: Australian COVIDSafe? “She’ll be right, mate”
So, you’re not going to download Australia’s new Covidsafe app? Then stay home. Forever.
At 6.00pm Sunday, the Australian Government released its “COVIDSafe” app, a COVID-19 tracking app.
At 6.02pm, I downloaded the app.
I will start by saying that I TOTALLY care about privacy and the misuse of data. Remember, I’m the dude who got rid of Facebook earlier this year because I was over Zuckers and co having so much access to my data and weaponising it commercially against me with those annoying ads for testicle shavers, sexy singles and Putin facemasks.
And I have no regrets about that decision, or about turning off most of the location data on my phone.
I also DID NOT sign up to “My Health Record”, an initiative of our government several years ago to allegedly help individuals keep control of their medical records. Oh no, not going to deliver all that data into the hands of Big Brother/Sister/Uncle Scomo/Dirty Dutto and then maybe sold on to commercial interests or used in “the national interest”.
And I more broadly have a very healthy scepticism about government and transparency and honesty, and whether any government, left or right, is ever really open enough with its citizens.
However, COVID-19 means we are not living in normal times.
Or maybe, rather, our current state of social distancing, remote working and the likes is the new normal, at least for the immediate future and until a vaccine is safely created.
With this new normal must come a new way of thinking.
Most of those, including some current government ministers (here’s looking at you, Barnaby Joyce, who doesn’t want the government poking around in his business, which speaks volumes after he was caught covering up an extra-marital affair several years ago), are anti using the COVIDSafe app.
But, I would warrant, a fair chunk of those opposed to the app are also complaining about the current restrictions we face that have led to an amazing lockdown of the spread of COVID-19 in Australia (as of publishing this, 6720 infections and just 82 deaths). They may not be as up in arms as the small pockets of gun-wielding Americans we have seen, emboldened by far-right conservative groups and President Trump’s series of “Liberate” tweets, but they aren’t happy.
And they are probably the same people who use Facebook, Instagram and Google regularly, and shop with Amazon… all of whom have more data on them than God (if there was a God…)
I’m waiting for these same people to use the argument of “Why should we download this app when Australia is already doing so well?”
As President Clinton so aptly put, “It’s the economy, stupid”
But first, a few simple facts about the COVIDSafe app:
- IT DOES NOT TRACK YOUR LOCATION. Yes, the cynics and sceptics and tinfoil hat brigade will argue we are being lied to about this, along with everything else that comes from the government (here’s looking at you US President Disinfectant) and with some just cause given how often government lie to us about other stuff. To counter the sceptics around privacy concerns, the government is releasing the code for the app soon.
- It only asks for four details — your name (which you could put in as a nickname), your phone number, your age and your postcode. All information that, guess what, the government ALREADY has about you.
- Personal information collected will be handled under the Privacy Act 1988 and the Biosecurity Determination 2020. So, anyone who feels their rights have been breached has legal recourse.
- When the pandemic is over, you can delete the app and with it any data related to it, at which time all stored info will also be deleted. If you want to delete the app earlier, you can and request early data deletion.
So, why do I trust the government on this one?
As President Clinton so aptly put, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Governments CANNOT function with an economy in recession and going backwards. If we can’t get and keep the transmission rate below 1, we will continue to see outbreaks or waves of COVID-19 transmissions and shit is gonna one hundred times more real than it already is.
But there is a much bigger reason why I’m doing this. It’s based on one of my favourite theories — the theories of the commons, which is when people won’t perform an action for fear of others not following suit, and thus being disadvantaged as a result.
The natural extension of this is having some sense of civic duty. Everyone is suffering from COVID-19. Luckily, only a few people are dying relative to the world’s population, but even this small percentage is TOO HIGH. Many of us (but not all, sadly) are making a range of sacrifices because we do not want someone we love or care for joining that small percentage of fatalities (not so small if you live in New York).
We also want life to return to normal so we can once again do some and then more of the things we have had to set aside in this time of social distancing.
But — and it’s not rocket science — if we have to wait between 12 to 18 months for a vaccine, life will not go back to normal if we cannot keep the contraction and fatality rate low, which we will if we find better ways to track the virus.
So, Australia, land of the perpetually chilled, if we want to continue our famous moniker of “She’ll be right mate”, we have to have at least 40–50% of the population think outside of their own lives so everyone WILL be right.
We need to prove that we care about the wider community and get our heads out of our own arses for a small while at least so we put our foot on the neck of this virus and keep it there til it’s safe to take it away.
Just download the app.
And if you value your privacy more than the well-being of society, then stay PRIVATELY at home where PRIVATELY you just might be asymptomatic and PRIVATELY passing on COVID-19 to people you love.
Yup, just stay there until all this is over so that the rest of us who are happy to take one for the team in terms of our own privacy are safe.
