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Covid app launches tommorow

Started by Fambo Number Mive, September 23, 2020, 06:55:13 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Fambo Number Mive

It's taken us much longer than other countries, but an app is finally here.

QuoteApple and Google's automated contact-tracing technology will be used to tell people to self-isolate if their phone detects they were near someone later determined to have the virus.
But there's more, including:
a venue check-in barcode scanner
a postcode-based risk-level checker
a symptoms-reporter tool
the means to order a coronavirus test and receive its results
a countdown timer to keep track of how long to stay in self-isolation
a guide to the latest advice on local restrictions, financial support and other related information

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54250736

Cloud

I've been rooting for this to come out for many months, but now that it's about to, I'm feeling a little unsure.  Covid is EVERYWHERE now - wouldn't we all be getting alerts en masse?  Maybe that's how lockdown will happen, we'll just all get an alert that we've been near someone with the virus.

bomb_dog

Get with it Grandads, all the cool kids are on that new Instacovid app, this is just for the olds

Puce Moment

This is going to have a real Degrees of Kevin Bacon vibe to it I reckon.

Alberon

Spent yesterday putting up QR codes for this on all the buildings at my university. Tomorrow or Friday I'm going to put up individual codes in each separate classroom.

Very pessimistic about them actually being used enough to make it worthwhile though

Sebastian Cobb


nugget

I've been using the German one since it was released ages ago and so far haven't received a single notification, it just sits there gradually draining my phone battery. What a swizz, you've not been missing much.

Alberon

The government doesn't seem to be actually advertising this new app. All the news seems to be about Sunak's rushed job protection package announcement tomorrow.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Alberon on September 23, 2020, 08:23:05 PM
The government doesn't seem to be actually advertising this new app.

I'm not sure they've realised it actually does track and trace now, they said it wouldn't when they quietly announced it then corrected it.

olliebean

They're probably worried it might be too effective, as it's pretty clear now they don't want to suppress the spread of the virus too much. Just enough to still be able to get away with claiming they haven't completely lost control of it.

jobotic

I haven't downloaded it yet but we have put the codes up at work. Colleague has just tried it - doesn't work.

This G4S or Serco or Vote Leave?

shiftwork2

Using it, jonesing for a couple weeks off work.  COME ON AND PING.

phantom_power

Doesn't work on iPhones older than 3 years old apparently. Fucking great

I.D. Smith

I'm a bit stupid with technology, but is this new app different to the Scottish one, to supplement the Scottish one, an alternative to the Scottish one, or just for England only?   

EDIT Ignore me, I just found out it's for England and Wales

jobotic

So if you get a ping to say you've been near someone who tested positive what are you supposed to do?

If you're not showing symptoms you're not supposed to try and get tested are you? You were once but now it makes you irresponsible and an annoyance to Serco. Do you isolate? And your family?

If you're not supposed to do anything what is the point?

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: jobotic on September 24, 2020, 11:34:00 AM
So if you get a ping to say you've been near someone who tested positive what are you supposed to do?

If you're not showing symptoms you're not supposed to try and get tested are you? You were once but now it makes you irresponsible and an annoyance to Serco. Do you isolate? And your family?

If you're not supposed to do anything what is the point?

But you are supposed to self-isolate, aren't you? That's what the website says, and is surely the point of it all.

jobotic

Hancock seems to say "if you want to".

I'm sure that employers will be cool with that.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: jobotic on September 24, 2020, 12:03:14 PM
Hancock seems to say "if you want to".

I'm sure that employers will be cool with that.

Well that's just Hancock being a colossal twat yet again, on the site it says:

QuoteStay at home for 14 days
If you're told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace or the NHS COVID-19 app:

self-isolate for 14 days from the day you were last in contact with the person who tested positive for coronavirus – as it can take up to 14 days for symptoms to appear
do not leave your home for any reason – if you need food or medicine, order it online or by phone, or ask friends and family to drop it off at your home
do not have visitors in your home, including friends and family – except for essential care
try to avoid contact with anyone you live with as much as possible
people you live with do not need to self-isolate if you do not have symptoms
people in your support bubble do not need to self-isolate if you do not have symptoms

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: phantom_power on September 24, 2020, 10:28:32 AM
Doesn't work on iPhones older than 3 years old apparently. Fucking great

I think that's because it relies on an iOS update. It's now using the google/apple system as the centralised one didn't work because they were trying to do something the os' specifically prevented.

Bence Fekete

#19
edit - wait, I'm an idiot: wrong app

jobotic

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on September 24, 2020, 12:29:04 PM
Well that's just Hancock being a colossal twat yet again, on the site it says:

Thanks

Alberon

Been logging into each building at work today painfully aware that I'm probably the only person doing it. It seems to work so far, but you need a reasonable percentage using it for it to be at all useful.

Information was put up on the staff pages headline news section this afternoon, but who reads that? Getting students to use it will be key.

Fambo Number Mive

Guido Fawkes reporter calls someone whose Iphone is more than six years old a "tight bastard: https://twitter.com/christiancalgie/status/1309028429900255234

Usually the right would complain about poor people having the latest phones. Now they are having a go at people for not having them.

Cloud

Installed it but still... if human track & trace got in touch then of course I'd definitely self isolate.  If an app told me to.... ehhhhh... I'd just have this automatic suspicion of a false positive.  I'd need more context.  But from what I've heard it does provide it, so you'd be able to use a bit of "common sense" to work out if you were dicing with death in the pub, or out in a field somewhere with a strong bluetooth connection to someone with the 'vid.

Imagine you worked in a place that was fully COVID-compliant, but there were communal lockers where everyone kept their bags with their phones in them because ISO accreditation prevents staff having devices with cameras on their person in the production area. So even though nobody's been closer than 2m to each other, everyone's phones are within 50cm of each other for nearly 8 hours a day.

But then imagine you worked in a place that was fully COVID-compliant, but everyone left their phones on their desks. At 12pm every day, the entire staff pile into the break room and take part in an orgy before wiping themselves down, getting dressed and heading back to their desks for lunch.

Staff at the former organisation would all be false flagged as having all been in close contact with one another, whilst the staff at the latter wouldn't be flagged at all.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Sebastian Cobb

My phone can see bluetooth shit in the downstairs flat. Can I blag a couple of weeks off if the cunts downstairs get it?

Alberon

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on September 24, 2020, 06:52:30 PM
Imagine you worked in a place that was fully COVID-compliant, but there were communal lockers where everyone kept their bags with their phones in them because ISO accreditation prevents staff having devices with cameras on their person in the production area. So even though nobody's been closer than 2m to each other, everyone's phones are within 50cm of each other for nearly 8 hours a day.

But then imagine you worked in a place that was fully COVID-compliant, but everyone left their phones on their desks. At 12pm every day, the entire staff pile into the break room and take part in an orgy before wiping themselves down, getting dressed and heading back to their desks for lunch.

Staff at the former organisation would all be false flagged as having all been in close contact with one another, whilst the staff at the latter wouldn't be flagged at all.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

That's why it's a requirement that the phone the app is on is strapped to your lungs twenty-four hours a day.

Cuellar


H-O-W-L

Apparently you can't put negative test results into it unless you booked your test via the app, and three guesses as to how reliable/possible doing that is.

Cuellar

I accidentally said I had a fever and it told me to SELF ISOLATE FOR 8 DAYS and I got all scared that I'd cause everyone's phone in the vicinity to ping so I uninstalled the app and reinstalled it and it doesn't say that anymore.