NZ COVID Tracer app for Android and iOS

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2 posts

Wannabe Geek
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#2767155 26-Aug-2021 18:34

cddt:

Still no use of bluetooth tracing since the 17th!

Yes, this is more than concerning. We have had over 276 cases since case A. Surely at least one case had bluetooth turned on and consented to have their keys uploaded.

From my understanding, the bluetooth exposure notifications framework is much more powerful than QR codes because it is being used by more New Zealanders (1.9 million have it turned on), and allows logging of all exposures, including those not tied to locations.

I don't think the Ministry of Health has forgotten that they can issue exposure alerts. My assumption is that there has been a major failure with the app or the calibration of the notifications, so they abandoned it for this outbreak. This is a real shame as this could have made a real difference in stopping chains of transmission during the current outbreak.

MurrayM

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#2767317 27-Aug-2021 08:18

For the bluetooth functionality I was under the impression that you had to be within range of someone else for a certain amount of time before it would register, eg standing next to someone waiting in line rather than just walking past them in the street. Is this not correct?

andrewchen

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#2767318 27-Aug-2021 08:23

MurrayM:

For the bluetooth functionality I was under the impression that you had to be within range of someone else for a certain amount of time before it would register, eg standing next to someone waiting in line rather than just walking past them in the street. Is this not correct?

Yes, this is correct. So depending on the thresholds of what is considered a close contact, we would expect Bluetooth to produce fewer contacts than the QR-code location-based approach. Imagine a situation like Te Papa - there would be thousands of people in the same building at the same time, whereas how many of those are actually physically proximate to a particular person for a given period of time? I'm not saying that Bluetooth isn't very useful, but it's limited and should be treated as complementary to the location-based approach to help capture contacts that weren't at a venue.

Research Fellow, Koi Tu: The Centre for Informed Futures, The University of Auckland
I know a bit about the NZ COVID Tracer app, but I don't work for Ministry of Health

sbiddle

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#2767323 27-Aug-2021 08:38

MurrayM:

For the bluetooth functionality I was under the impression that you had to be within range of someone else for a certain amount of time before it would register, eg standing next to someone waiting in line rather than just walking past them in the street. Is this not correct?

Yes. The current belief from people who have looked at the source code (and I think Andrew is one of those as he knows a lot more about the app) is that the current threshold to determine a contact is 2 mins of nearby contact (which is determined by signal strength) within a 15 min period. Whether this is appropriate or not for Delta isn't really the issue here - it's more the fact we still do not appear to have used Bluetooth at all in this outbreak other than what can be assumed to be the exposure key of case A being sent out on Tue 17th in the evening.

Prof David Skegg talked about Bluetooth yesterday at the health select committee and seemed a little confused about it saying that uptake was very poor, which certainly isn't the case. How useful the technology really is is yet to really be tested - it's certainly no magic replacement for anything, but does have a good fit in our contact tracing framework.

Oblivian

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#2767324 27-Aug-2021 08:43

And that about confirms our suspicions here. Not driveby but to narrow

So with a far higher rate before outbreak of BT vs QR use

Post outbreak similar QR use despite less population movement AND further increase in BT

So people started scanning like they should have been and were previously trusting BT was the magic bullet to take care of it. When sudden reality hits that it really isnt on it's own

Darwinism.

sbiddle

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#2767341 27-Aug-2021 09:04

Oblivian: And that about confirms our suspicions here. Not driveby but to narrow

So with a far higher rate before outbreak of BT vs QR use

Post outbreak similar QR use despite less population movement AND further increase in BT

So people started scanning like they should have been and were previously trusting BT was the magic bullet to take care of it. When sudden reality hits that it really isnt on it's own

Darwinism.

Bluetooth could still be very useful, but we simply don't know how useful because it's obviously not being used which is incredibly unfortunate.

This could have potentially been the perfect scenario to actually see how useful Bluetooth is - but if people who test positive aren't being asked about Bluetooth and being asked to upload their exposure key from the app then the whole system falls over.

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alasta

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#2767344 27-Aug-2021 09:10

This morning I received a rogue notification from the app telling me that I haven't scanned in anywhere in the last seven days. I haven't been out much over the last week for obvious reasons, but my diary clearly shows me scanning in to the local New World two days ago.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Oblivian

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#2767346 27-Aug-2021 09:15

alasta:
This morning I received a rogue notification from the app telling me that I haven't scanned in anywhere in the last seven days. I haven't been out much over the last week for obvious reasons, but my diary clearly shows me scanning in to the local New World two days ago.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Not a problem. Feature

As discussed here, looks at 14 days. Expecting daily

If you're at home, diy a QR for the future and front window, or select 'i stayed home' as the address in diary

No more nags

alasta

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#2767359 27-Aug-2021 09:40

That seems like an awful lot of hassle.

I imagine that a lot of people will just turn off the notifications altogether, hence introducing the risk of missing a legitimate exposure notification.

In a level 4 environment it would make much more sense to just check for one check-in over the last seven days.

RunningMan

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#2767365 27-Aug-2021 10:00

@alasta on iOS at least you can select what types of notifications to receive, and turn off Diary Reminders. You can't disable contact alerts for obvious reasons. Assume similar on Android.

My Data -> Notification Preferences

alasta

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#2767435 27-Aug-2021 10:18

Thanks, that was an easy fix!

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k1w1k1d

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#2767490 27-Aug-2021 11:33

I also got the notification on my iPhone about no scans yesterday, but the only place I have been to is the Orchard Road vaccination centre two days before. This scan is shown in the diary, so I was a bit mystified.

Thanks Running Man for advising how to turn future notifications off.

Ge0rge

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#2767676 27-Aug-2021 15:37

Oblivian:
alasta:
This morning I received a rogue notification from the app telling me that I haven't scanned in anywhere in the last seven days. I haven't been out much over the last week for obvious reasons, but my diary clearly shows me scanning in to the local New World two days ago.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Not a problem. Feature

As discussed here, looks at 14 days. Expecting daily

If you're at home, diy a QR for the future and front window, or select 'i stayed home' as the address in diary

No more nags

It's a fault.

Every morning during lockdown I have opened the app, ticked "I stayed at home", and then closed it. Got a notification a couple of minutes ago saying I hadn't updated my diary in the last something days (I forget exactly how many). Clicked on the link to be taken to the app, shows me an in-app notification that I needed to update my diary. Clicked on the diary, "14 of the last 14 days have entries"

Explain to me again what the feature is?

Oblivian

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#2767685 27-Aug-2021 15:52

*shrug*

I've not been nagged yet (with it enabled). And I've not got a daily entry at this point

Take it up with the developers. I'm not one. But the app release/features have been discussed many a time as added here. So it shouldn't be a surprise, it was some pages back

And working as designed on my device.

/edit blast it doesnt want to let me upload.

10/14 complete (normally do it on a fri)

GregV

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Ultimate Geek
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#2767743 27-Aug-2021 17:14

Bug confirmed:
https://twitter.com/minhealthnz/status/1431111913283330048?s=19

Oops, we've found a bug in the NZ COVID Tracer's new reminder feature. Apologies to anyone "bugged" by reminders to scan this week. We're working to resolve this now. If you open the app today, this feature should reset.

In the meantime, keep scanning and stay safe! #COVID19nz https://t.co/hjr61Rh1f0

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