Covid tracker app committee has met just twice

It emerged in October that the app, which is designed to act as a digital contact tracing service regarding confirmed Covid cases using Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between smartphones, is currently notifying just 6% of positive cases of the virus. Picture: Leah Farrell/Rollingnews.ie

A governance committee for Ireland’s HSE-sponsored Covid Tracker app has met only twice this year – and concluded that issues may exist with the app’s effectiveness.

The Covid Tracker App Advisory Committee met virtually on July 12, 2021, and concluded that due to the Covid public health restrictions, many people “had not had the opportunity to come into contact with other users, which would impact on the app’s efficacy”, according to the meeting’s minutes.

The meeting heard the Department of Health and the HSE had agreed to a full review of the app to be discussed at the next committee meeting, which has yet to occur.

The governance committee was set up at the app’s inception in order to, among other things, give “due consideration” to data protection concerns and guidance.

However, there are no privacy, data protection, or civil liberties experts or advocates among the committee’s membership, which consists primarily of Department of Health and HSE officials, and representatives from other organisations including eating disorder charity Bodywhys and Age Action.

Jacinta Hastings, chief executive with Bodywhys, told the Irish Examinerher organisation had been included after it had expressed interest in being on the committee due to the impact of Covid on people with eating disorders.

It emerged in October that the app, which is designed to act as a digital contact tracing service regarding confirmed Covid cases using Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between smartphones, is currently notifying just 6% of positive cases of the virus.

One of the advisory committee’s functions is to oversee the winding-down of the app within 90 days “if the app is assessed as ineffective as part of its efficacy monitoring process”.

Such a stipulation was included in the committee’s terms of reference on foot of data protection concerns being expressed in terms of the app during its development.

The HSE had not replied to a request for comment as to what dictated the committee’s membership at the time of publication.

The July meeting also discussed the then pending inclusion of a person’s Covid vaccine certificate on the tracker app, and agreed that doing same “had the potential to increase uptake in downloading the app”.