'COVIDSafe': All your questions about Australia's COVID-19 tracing app, answered.

"If you test positive to coronavirus that information is sent up to a national health storage and given straight to state governments so they can contact individuals who may have come into contact with an infected person," he said.

"At no point does the Commonwealth get the data at all."

It will only be used to contact people you've been in contact with if you test positive.

A reminder that you have the power to enable the app to give away your data. It's all controlled by you.

3. Do we have to download the COVIDSafe app?

At the moment, it's voluntary.

But a mandatory take up is not being ruled out, because we need 40 per cent of the country to use it in order for it to work.

As of late last night, a million people had downloaded it, but Australia will need over nine million people to have downloaded the app to reach 40 per cent.

The App we are working on to help our health workers trace people who have been in contact with coronavirus will not be mandatory.

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 18, 2020

"My preference is not to do that [make it mandatory]. My preference is to give Australians a go at getting it right," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Triple M, adding that he wants us to see it as "national service" like back in war times.

4. What is 'open source' software?

The government keeps telling us they've made the app "open source," and as Director of University of NSW Canberra Cyber Nigel Phair told Mamamia's news podcast The Quicky, that's not a term general users know.

"The government is getting quite cute when it comes to its terminology to make it sound like it's all legitimate. When we think about open source we think about train timetables - so Sydney trains made their timetable open source," said Phair.

Basically, it means that the app's design will be publicly available. Some software has source code that only the person, team, or organisation who created it - and maintains exclusive control over it - can modify.

By making it "open source," the government is trying to tell us they are being transparent and have nothing to hide. We, as Australians, can examine the code to make sure it's not doing anything we don't want it to do (provided we can understand code of course).

The ABC reports that the source code is yet to be publicly released.

5. What about my privacy?

If you use Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok or even just Google - you are already giving your private information to those companies. To make their app more watertight, the government has vowed to legislate the protection of user data in COVIDSafe.

"This is, as the Attorney-General has said, probably the safest data that has been provided by any group at any time in Australian history. It is the most basic of data, simply about helping to save your life, to protect your life and to protect the lives of our nurses and dock is and those with whom they come in contact," Health Minister Greg Hunt said last night.

"The safeguards that have been put in place are the strongest ever. Not even a court order can penetrate the law .... not even a court order during the investigation of an alleged crime would allow the data to be used," he added.

"It has some potential to be hacked, or leaked or breached," she explained, adding that we also need more clarification that the information on the app will be dismantled and destroyed once the emergency ends.

The federal government, however, says all data stored in the national encrypted store (which is obtained from positive cases) will be deleted at the end of the pandemic.

Dr Belinda Barnet, a senior lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology with research interests in data privacy, told the Sydney Morning Herald: "This is the first time our government has deployed a digital service with user privacy at its core, that is protected by strong legislation for one specific use, and requiring consent at two points."

Health Minister Greg Hunt also assured, "The data has to be kept on an Australian server. It cannot leave the country." If the data is used for any other purpose, it is punishable by jail.

As a doctor, I’ll be downloading the contact tracing app, and I’ll be encouraging my patients, colleagues, family, and friends to do the same #COVIDsafe

— AMA President (@amapresident) April 26, 2020

Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy says he will be using the app, saying, "No Australian should have any concerns about downloading this app."

So anyone experiencing buyer's remorse can delete the app and all of the associated data stored on their handset.

7. Who is downloading it?

As pointed out above, Australian Medical Association President Dr Tony Bartone has downloaded the app, as has NSW Resilience Commissioner and former RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons.

My family and I have just downloaed and activated the #covidsafe app.
Lets all continue working together, to limit the spread and help save lives, by getting the App.
You can download and activate the covidsafe-app via the Australian Government link below.https://t.co/YfVzNAhB4U

— Shane Fitzsimmons (@RFSCommissioner) April 26, 2020

Labor health spokesman Chris Bowen said the app had been activated under the Biosecurity Act as an interim measure, but expects it will be legislated when parliament sits in mid-May, adding that he's happy to download it.

His Labor colleague Tanya Plibersek has also vocalised her support.

My family downloaded the COVIDSafe app this morning. I want to know quickly if we’ve been in contact with someone who has the virus.

— Tanya Plibersek (@tanya_plibersek) April 26, 2020

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott has urged all Australians to download the app.

“The more Australians who download the app the safer we will all be and the more quickly we can begin to ease restrictions,” she said in a statement.

The world of banking is also behind it.

Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh said: "Australia’s bank chiefs were right behind efforts to open up the economy in the coming weeks."

The Australian and International Pilots Association has also said they are backing the app's use.

Australian Noel Laureate and immunologist Peter Doherty is also signing up.

#Insiders I'll be signing up for the COVID-19 App. Anything that helps us wrestle COVID-19 to the ground is a plus. Any privacy any of us had pretty much disappeared when we started using mobile phones, searching on line, buying stuff from Amazon or whatever.

— Prof. Peter Doherty (@ProfPCDoherty) April 25, 2020

Last night on The Project, hosts Lisa Wilkinson and Tommy Little confirmed they were signing up.

"I am the person that if ever someone tells me to do something, I say no," Little told the camera.

"But I'm so sick of talking about this virus, I'm sick of people not being able to leave their homes, and if the one thing you do - if you don't do anything else in your day today - just download this app. It's gonna make it so much easier for us to live our normal lives quicker," he said.

Fellow host Peter van Onselen said he was initially dubious about downloading the app, which saw him have an off-air disagreement with his co-host, Lisa Wilkinson.

"Seriously, Lisa, you convinced me. You could call me belligerent. I'm doing it to be stubborn. I thought about it," he said.

The app is available to download from the Google Play store for Android devices and from the Apple App Store.

The post was originally published on April 21, and has been updated on April 27, 2020. 

Feature image: Getty.