Would you download the app?

[PineappleDanish]

Much talk today about the app which is being developed by the NHS and the idea that this could be used to track where the virus is active and track the contacts of people who go on to develop symptoms. Apparently this is what has been done in South Korea to great effect.

So would you download it?

Although I have nothing to hide, I'm not terribly comfortable with the government knowing where I am every minute of every day, and texting me to tell me someone who was in the supermarket at the same time as me has symptoms. But if it allows us to get back to a semblance of normality I reckon the benefits outweigh the concerns.

I would. I can't imagine anyone using it for sinister purposes or being even remotely interested in where I am at any given time. I'm not so full of self-importance to think the government would go to the time and trouble to track me

The assumption has to be that there are very few people who are infected which means that there is unlikely to be an infected person in the supermarket when you are there , so you get very few isolation times

And the likelyhood is further reduced because there has to be a time element. Ie 3 tags from the same mobile imply more than 10 minutes in proximity

I’ve read online that there are 2 basic ways of doing the app, one as described by Puzzled and one where personal data is gathered by the government. I’m not optimistic that they’re going to choose (a).

It's worth remembering that government have already messed up endless initiatives which were supposed to protect us, from computer systems to PPE procurement and just about everything in between. But the latest "big thing" - the one we're told really could make a difference - just happens to involve us giving them yet more power which is wide open to abuse

It's understandable if folk are keen to grab anything which could mean less disruption (and interesting that a similar thread last week received a resounding "NO!!"), but please be careful what you wish for and remember that, far from bringing fewer restrictions, this could easily bring far more

I don't mind having the app (for a time) but I don't see how it can possibly work.

The tests don't always work. They don't work on the day you get infected anyway and you might be infected the day after you are tested. Are we to test everyone in the country daily?

But does it really mean that I will have to stay at home for 2 weeks every time I'm in the supermarket with someone positive? I imagine we could spend a lot of time in isolation. I don't quite understand how it will work

If that's how it works, I can't see people using it - you could be in and out of isolation like a yoyo!! I can't see employer's putting up with it either.

PicsinRed No, look at what an app just like this is being used for in China

No. No. No.

⏏️ This

But does it really mean that I will have to stay at home for 2 weeks every time I'm in the supermarket with someone positive? I imagine we could spend a lot of time in isolation. I don't quite understand how it will work

To be honest if you’re regularly coming across people who shortly afterwards test positive then the outbreak would probably be back out of the containment phase, where contact tracing and quarantining contacts is effective, and back into suppression.

Definitely not. Especially definitely not - now I know that Cummings is much more (than previously realised) involved in all of this.

Jassy do you mean back to lockdown?

Jassy do you mean back to lockdown

Not necessarily full lockdown, but certainly with more stringent social distancing measures as the primary form of disease control.

Thanks Jassy.

Nope - although I could throw away my phone and get a new one if I knew it was only for a year - but obviously we know this could go on permanently with a new strain of Corona every year, like the flu virus.
So that would mean permanently being tracked by the gov.
Not for me.