So what would entice you to install/enable a covid-19 App?
In the UK, where they’ve developed their own centralised App, (see what .ico says) it is expected that people will download the App in the name of ‘civic duty’. Sounds very British 😉
Apparently the Australians have also developed their own App, and I’d be surprised if ‘civic duty’ would motivate Australian citizens 😉
However, the one developed to be installed as a default on the Apple and Google phone, a decentralised version, could trigger the user to enable so that they can detect if they are in the proximity of an individual who could have covid-19, i.e. they’ve been in the proximity themselves with a covid-19, on one who has developed symptoms.
You know I wouldn’t be surprised if UK citizens did actually install on the basis mentioned above, to have a ‘civic duty’ is a key British value 🙂
What will motivate most outside of the UK though would be the idea that they can -as much as is doable- continue a normal life, and minimise the risk of becoming one of the statistics for covid-19.
Mentioned above are 2 models, centralised and de-centralised. In the centralised model the phone sends data to a government authority which will be compiling stats to understand the spread of the virus. It is claimed that no personal data is collected, i.e. it is anonymised. In the latter model the data stays on the phone.
The centralised model is only privacy friendly, if the data sent is truly anonymised, which I am sceptical over. At least at this stage, even if the intentions are true, I have yet to see a process which can really anonymise data, i.e. there is in fact, to my knowledge, no industry standard on the anonymisation process, which is mulitple steps of: de-identification, masking, obscurification, etc., to make it impossible to revert back. In fact it will always be possible to revert back unless the keys used for each step are securely disposed.
When I ask myself if I would install/enable the App? For covid-19, probably not. I live on an island, and there’s no bridge to the mainland. I don’t consider myself to be a risk group. However, if I were a risk-group, I would enable the Apple App, the privacy friendly one. Although who knows my ‘civic duty’ could jump in (as a British ex-pat) if the pandemic fatality rate was much higher and a sense of panic sets in.