[Franco Cozzo]

While the government has been at pains to address privacy concerns about the COVIDSafe app, cybersecurity analysts believe the data could be mined for other uses. By Karen Middleton.
How the COVIDSafe data could be used


A user looks at the new COVIDSafe app, released by the federal government last Sunday evening.CREDIT: PA





The technology behind the Australian government’s new COVIDSafe tracing app could create a comprehensive social contacts map of the nation – a potentially valuable dataset to foreign governments and Australian law enforcement.

That’s the view of one analyst, Professor Dali Kaafar, executive director of the Optus Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub, who has studied the app’s functions and the source code of the Singaporean version, which he says the Australian app very closely matches.

He argues that if the entire dataset were to become centrally located and accessible, it would likely be of great interest to governments and other organisations.

Under current Australian law, only state and territory health officers tracing coronavirus contacts will have access to the data COVIDSafe collects and, even then, only parts of it, under very strict conditions.

But Kaafar says that if the security provisions changed, the COVIDSafe data could be crossmatched with other personal data, including open-source information about personal activities posted on social media sites.

That could provide a very accurate and revealing portrait of Australians’ movements, who they spend time with, precisely when and ultimately even where.

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