Apple/Google’s COVID-19 tracking solution stinks — unless it’s great!

A senior Australian lawmaker has blames Apple and Google for flaws with the country’s COVID-19 contact tracing app. However, Government Services Minister Stuart Robert disagrees and says that the COVIDSafe app is working “just as intended,” according to Sky News.

In April Apple and Google announced a joint effort to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of COVID-19 via the use of Bluetooth technology. The companies’ solution includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.Software developers contribute by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives.

The app has become the subject of scrutiny after it was revealed there was no evidence it was able to pick up cases which had not already been found via manual tracing.

“It’s designed there to assist with manual tracing, designed to augment it, it’s been used over 300 times now by health officials to ensure that manual tracing is picking up all the various contacts,” Robert told Sky News. “It’s like saying to soldiers you don’t need a weapon because artillery and tank fire will keep you safe, which might be fine until a time unless the enemy gets too close.”

On the flip side, Ireland’s COVID-19 contact tracing app — which uses the API released by Apple and Google — has been so successful that officials from other countries, including the US, want to use it, according to Business Insider

The app, dubbed COVID Tracker sends out Bluetooth signals that look for other phones with the app downloaded. These signals allow the phones to keep a record of other nearby devices — if one user tests positive for the virus, Ireland’s health authority, the Health Service Executive (HSE) asks them to upload their log, and others users are alerted through the app.