Will you sign up for the NHS contact tracing app?

[Runningfar]

I can't see any reason why I wouldn't. Has anyone got any concerns about it?

I dont see how it will actually ease lock down at all.

People could end up self isolating again and again and still not have it. Eapecialky if your work with the public.

Who can afford that? Essential, lots of people would end up in self isolation, back at work a few days and back in isolation again. Lots of people would be in a constant, isolation- back out- isolation loop.

How would a shop survive? Customer comes in and a load of your staff have to isolate?

But then, most customer facing roles don't allow you to have enough phone with you. So you wouldn't know if a customer had it, then you spread it to others.

So the people who come into contact with others more, won't have their phone so its pointless.

The app won't reduce a lockdown. If we all go back to or normal life (or as normal as it can be) loads of people will essentially be in lockdown because of their job.

I am also confused about how easy it to sorrad. Experts claiming only 3-4% of the population have it. In which case, its not that easy to spread. We have weeks before lockdown, cases are still going up, so there are people who have been spreading it before disgnosed, but not as easily as we first thought.

If its not that easily spreadable and you are social distancing, then how is this app particularly helpful?

The source code will be released

Open sourcing could be a double edge sword in a way, but that's always the way with open sourcing apps.

I'm all for that though as I would really want to know what the app is doing on my phone and how secure it is.

I'm not one of the tinfoil hat brigade, but I try and keep it to a minimum what I have on my phone.

Hmmmm anyone been watching Westworld recently?

I'm not one of the tinfoil hat brigade, but I try and keep it to a minimum what I have on my phone.

Me either. I'm not a hard-core privacy rights type, more like privacy rights light, and this is far beyond my tolerance for government surveillance.

I also appreciate the hell out of the safeguards that the hard-core privacy rights types have assured on my behalf, many without me even knowing about it.

The theory is sound in my opinion. It’s not like a GPS tracker. Instead, it will look out for other phones with the app as you travel around and if you’re near another phone for more than 15 mins it will register that as a contact. If you then contract the virus, you let the app know which will then alert all those you’ve spent time nearby recently. If You get an alert, then in theory you can have a test straight away, find out either way if you have it and therefore avoid infecting lots of other people.

If they can make assurances on the privacy (and you can bet your bottom dollar privacy groups will be all over this) then I’m all for it.

No? Well yes it a totally fictional concept but in this series there is a central info computer brain type thing that predicts your life based on your past/current decisions and was only possible as the billionaire obtained the human data before privacy laws cracked down. I feel more and more like i am in a bad movie

@Sassenach85 My husband & son are watching it, I'm not a great fan of the genre but I can see the parallels!

I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from a bad dream.

Open source tend to have far fewer bugs and features than other code and problems are more readily identified and fixed

Ditto everything midgebabe has said.

What I was trying to say but you've put it better.

No. I actually trust Google more than this lot not to sell my individual data or lose it. Mostly because Google is US based and privacy is hot topic over there.

For those saying "it will kill people if you don't do it", how do you propose to manage it in schools, hospitals and public transport where workers can see hundreds of people a day, rendering the app effectively null?

This is a placebo replacement for an effective testing regime that strips away privacy.

No, what's the point of it on a packed Tube train?

I'll have to isolate for two weeks after every single tube/train/bus journey.

I posted earlier saying that although I felt a resistance to it, I was remaining open minded.
Since it's moved from a decentralised model to a centralised one that would be a no from me.

I don’t see how it can work until the government roll out widespread testing.

I downloaded the other app which asks you to report how you’re feeling every day, but there was no provision for pre-existing symptoms. So to use it I would either need to lie, or risk giving a false positive. I don’t want to cause people to self-isolate because I have pre-existing breathing problems / chronic cough which an app misinterprets as COVID.

Open source tend to have far fewer bugs and features than other code and problems are more readily identified and fixed

I will agree with that, I've contributed to quite a few OS projects, but initially it can expose vulnerabilities that are an issue until fixed.

But but but...MNetters keep telling me I can’t leave the house to buy food and that bread and milk are not essential. And not to use delivery services as I’ll be killing people.

But now I have to buy a smart phone. How do I do that if I’m not “allowed” to do any form of shopping?

Absolutely not.

Pp doing the whole "if you don't download this you are SELFISH" thing already really doesn't make me any more likely to do so. Quite the opposite tbh.

Ah well I’ll be branded selfish if I leave my house to buy a phone (I’ll be murdering retail workers) or if I buy a smartphone and get it delivered. (Murdering distribution workers).

Or I don’t get the app because I don’t have a smart phone and I murder old ladies!

Schrödinger's mobile phone.

I certainly will.

Pp doing the whole "if you don't download this you are SELFISH" thing already really doesn't make me any more likely to do so. Quite the opposite tbh.

All this "you are selfish" malarkey that keeps getting bandied around is just background noise to be honest and should just be ignored. It's thrown around all the time with little to no thought.

The whole idea is to keep the numbers of infected people low so that the chances of you being on a packed tube train within a few meters of an infected person would be very small

if people use the app, potential carriers discover this early, so reducing the chances of being on that tube whilst not showing symptoms

And yeah Phil, I would probably wait for the second release!

It's interesting to hear the different pov.

I don't think anyone is selfish for not downloading it. On the face of it it seemed like a reasonable plan from the government. Certainly not something I'd ordinarily agree to, but then I wouldn't ordinarily agree to being kept in my house involuntarily either.

I guess as the weeks go by we will hear more from the government about how they expect it to work, then it will be a case of making a hopefully informed decision.

I feel as though I'm somewhat tracked already. I mean I have a smart phone, my employer knows when I've been online, I pay buy card, the government are tracking our transport usage and footfall.

I don't think we are as free as we like to believe, and this pandemic has shown up some of that. But do our government have sinister intentions? They told the police to lay off and haven't gone for a strict lockdown like other countries.

All this "you are selfish" malarkey that keeps getting bandied around is just background noise to be honest and should just be ignored. It's thrown around all the time with little to no thought.

Yep, It's our new normal.

It's selfish to consider your mental health/buy shoes/use Ocado delivery slots/sit on a park bench/ride a bike/go running/drive a car and so on. Or not submit to this app. Selfish selfish selfish!

Since it's moved from a decentralised model to a centralised one that would be a no from me.

Correct. if they use the local bluetooth pinging thing I'd possibly consider it, depending on how many of my freedoms are pinned to it, but I would hate it.

^*All this "you are selfish" malarkey that keeps getting bandied around is just background noise to be honest and should just be ignored. It's thrown around all the time with little to no thought.

Yep, It's our new normal.

It's selfish to consider your mental health/buy shoes/use Ocado delivery slots/sit on a park bench/ride a bike/go running/drive a car and so on. Or not submit to this app. Selfish selfish selfish! *^

Just to reiterate I do not think ANY of this. I just want a way to grab a bit of normality back.