We Will Find You

at

This morning.

Baggott Street, Dublin 2.

Stephen Donnelly, Minister for Health, and Paul Reid, Chief Executive Officer, HSE launch the Department of Health and HSE COVID Tracker App outside the Department of Health HQ.

It’s for your own safety.

Nothing untoward.

Move along now.

Previously: Tracker App Report Card

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Um.

Where’s Mehmet Ali Ağca when you need him.

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28 thoughts on “We Will Find You

    1. Slightly Bemused

      It is supported on both iPhone and Android devices, but not all. My Samsung is too old, and it will not work, nor will it work on iPhones older than the 6S (I think, one of the 6s anyway). The software needs to download a feature which will appear in your settings as a COVID notification. This is the software that allows the app to work.

        1. ReproBertie

          Come to think of it, I’m not sure where the SE sits in the chronological order of iPhones.

    2. Help

      Another complete waste of money

      Unworkable
      I tried to get a covid test ten times privately and no success
      If they cannot do this then that app is a total waste
      It’s the rapid broadband of covid

      I bet the developers got millions for it

  1. Micko

    So, just so I understand this one.

    A person gets tested for the disease, then that data goes into the app and they get a positive result a few days later.

    Then if I come into contact with that person for a prolonged period of time – will I be required to self-isolate for 14 days? Even if I have no symptoms? Or will I then have to go for a test?

    Genuinely wondering how this one will work?

    1. Slightly Bemused

      From an interview on our local radio this morning with someone who developed, or maybe just rolled out, the app, if your were in prolonged contact with someone who tested positive, you would be asked to self isolate and contact your GP to arrange a test. You would stay in isolation until the results came back.

      You would then enter the result into your own app, and if positive, the process would repeat with all your contacts.

      1. Micko

        Ok, thanks Slightly

        I wonder if you get a positive result – does that app continue to track you to insure that you’re staying in?

        Also, when you do get a test, obvioulsy the testers will know your details and that data will be lined up with data on the app. So there would be privacy concerns?

        I’m in full tin foil hat mode today :-)

        1. Slightly Bemused

          The guy on the interview was clear that it does not track your location to any great detail – town level maybe, and then only to check for cluster outbreaks.
          I was not clear if this was more from your registration mentioning your town, as he said elsewhere that your location services did not need to be on, you just needed the software I mentioned in the reply to Dr Fart above.
          It just tracks who else with the app is near you. Which could be a problem if you are in an apartment and it reaches through the walls to the next door neighbour.

          And you are most welcome :-)

        2. Cian

          The “tracking” is done with Bluetooth – so it can see other phones with this app running Bluetooth.
          It doesn’t use GPS – so doesn’t know where you are – just what phones (with this app) are nearby.

          1. Slightly Bemused

            Cheers, Cian. Thanks for the clarification. I think I was a bit confused, as I was still making breakfast at the time, and enough caffeine had not yet percolated

          2. GiggidyGoo

            Just wondering Cian where you got your information about GPS? Reported today that GPS must be active on android for it to work.

  2. Yann

    Another gov bul*£#t. If they want that covid app to be efficient it should be widely available, not just for the ones with most up to date most expensive mobile handsets on the market. Not everyone has the new iPhone X or 11. On the App store it says on the specs OS 11 or above I have my phone fully up to date OS 12.4.6 on an I phone 5S and it does not support the tracker. So the app is no use to me and all the others using such a device. Again we can observe that the portion of the population that can afford to be protected will be protected and the other well they are on their own. Well Mr and Mrs Tds and Top public servants who live on another planet, the so called frontline workers are MOSTLY part of second category of the population and you are simply showing them the middle finger on this one! Well done!

    1. Slightly Bemused

      As I understand it, the issue is not with the app, but with Google and Apple. Not everything is backward compatible on their software. The Government did want it as widely available as possible, but came up against limitations imposed by the software (iOS and Android). It was not a deliberate exclusionary tactic on their part.

      I have many friends who still use older phones that have no internet capability, and I am sure they are not alone. They too are excluded, as are people like my father who still mainly uses his landline and leaves his mobile all over the place.

      Google and Apple are the ones trying to force us to buy their more recent models. A couple years ago I was with a good friend who had an iPhone 4 and one day it basically just stopped working with any apps. Built in obsolescence so you have to buy a new one.

      1. Pavel

        They were never hoping or expecting to get 100% uptake, there will always be people who either cannot or do not want to install the app. But once they have enough users the benefit will be at a population level, regardless of an individual using the app or not. If you are lucky to have a newer phone you should install it to help those that cant.

      2. JEH

        From what I recall reading a few months back when the Google/Apple API project was launched they set incredibly low standards for system requirements. I believe the Google one was only Android 6 or above. That should cover any phone released in the last 5 years and further back than that.

        However, I’ve just tried to install and I was told it’s not supported by my phone which is 3 years old and running Android 9 nor my tablet released by Samsung 1 month ago running Android 10. This beggars belief.

  3. f_lawless

    I can’t help feeling that this is all just a technocratic pipedream at this stage and a waste of public money.
    The situation has evolved since these apps first went into development. The death rate has almost completely dropped off and continued to do so despite an easing of lockdown measures. The case that this has a strong connection to herd immunity is getting a lot more credible. Contrary to what was previously believed, it’s now emerging that the body can have various immunological methods of conquering the virus, not just through the presence of antibodies.

    Also it’s becoming apparent that the PCR testing is a really unreliable way of determining if somebody is actually an infectious spreader. The late Kary Mullis , the original inventor of the technology, believed that it should never have been used to determine if someone had a specific viral disease – that it’s too prone to give false positives – eg. it can be triggered by other corona viruses or by the presence of “viral debris” in cases where people’s immune system have already successfully fought off the virus.

    And then there’s the proven unreliability of bluetooth technology for such tracking purposes.

    This article regarding immunity and PCR testing by Beda M Stadler the former director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Bern, is an interesting read (translated from German).
    https://medium.com/@vernunftundrichtigkeit/coronavirus-why-everyone-was-wrong-fce6db5ba809

  4. Janet, dreams of big guns

    hope it’s not a repeat of this

    Dáil centenary site cost €180,000 to build but fails to draw visitors
    Public was made aware of the site via tweets from Oireachtas Twitter account.
    Tuesday 25 June 2019 22:45 18,74335
    A GOVERNMENT WEBSITE, designed to commemorate the centenary of the first Dáil, and which cost €180,000 to develop, has had just 12,000 visitors in the first six months since it went online.

  5. Sham Bob

    Conor Pope is the ultimate smug elitist journo and him being for something doesn’t help its credibility, but c’mon, invoking a grey wolves papal assassin is a bit much. Good thing you don’t have a big far-right readership, they might take it in a ‘someone rid me of this turbulent priest’ way.

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