Australia’s Covid-19 contact tracing software, the COVIDSafe app, has been decommissioned by the Australian Government just two years after its launch.
The app, which costs around $75,000 a month, was deemed a failure by Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler after only identifying two positive COVID-19 cases and 17 close contacts throughout its service.
“This failed app was a colossal waste of more than $21 million,” he said, attributing the failure as a trademark of the previous Australian Government.
“The former Prime Minister said this app would be our “sunscreen” against COVID-19 – all it did was burn through taxpayer’s money.”
Despite being downloaded by nearly 8 million Australians during the Delta and Omnicron outbreaks, the app was barely used by the previous government to aid in contact tracing across the states and territories.
The failed app cost taxpayers more than $10 million in development, a further $7 million on advertising and marketing, $2.1 million on upkeep and over $2 million on staff.
While nearly 8 million users have registered on the app, only 800 users consented to their data being added to the National COVIDSafe Data Store for contact tracing.
The last upload of data to the National COVIDSafe Data Store occurred in May 2021. There has been no access to the data store by state and territory authorities since January 2022.
The ACT Government had even relied on its own contact tracers for data instead of the app when cases spiked in late 2021.
“It was contact tracers working on the ground who were the real success story, not this failed app,” Minister Butler said.
“It is clear this app failed as a public health measure and that’s why we’ve acted to delete it.”
With the Department of Health and Aged Care decommissioning the app on 16 August 2022, all COVIDSafe app data will be deleted to ensure that no data from the app will be collected. The app will also be removed from the platforms where it could be downloaded.
Push notifications and SMS texts will be sent to any remaining users informing them the COVIDSafe app is no longer in use and encouraging them to delete the app from their devices.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the independent national regulator for privacy, will undertake an assessment to provide assurance that the COVIDSafe app information management requirements have been met following the Health Minister’s determination.
Source: Minister for Health and Aged Care media release. Content has been edited for style and length.