Will you download the contact tracing app?

Lisha

Miike wrote: »

Hey,
Yeah I understand what you're saying but it makes zero clinical sense to test everyone who has been exposed. It takes time for the viral genetic material to replicated to a point where rRT-PCT can detect it.

Eg: I met you in the shop this morning at 9am and at 11am the HSE confirmed I'm a positive case. You get a phone call today, the following day or even 2 days later telling you you've been in contact with a positive case. If they were to arrange a test on any of those days you'd likely return a 'not detected' result (even if you later went on to develop COVID19) because the viral genetic material has not yet reached a detectable level. When you start showing any symptoms that suggests you're at a level now where rRT-PCR can accurately detect the viral genetic material.

This is why we operate from case definitions and not test everyone and everything willy nilly.

I hope that makes sense

I really think this Point above is an important point that is being missed in general. If I meet a positive person on Monday the 1st, If I am tested on the 3rd and test Is negative This is potentially as false negative as the virus hasn’t replicated enough to be detected. The test shouldn’t be done until symptoms are present or until the 14th.

Jim_Hodge

Lisha wrote: »

I really think this Point above is an important point that is being missed in general. If I meet a positive person on Monday the 1st, If I am tested on the 3rd and test Is negative This is potentially as false negative as the virus hasn’t replicated enough to be detected. The test shouldn’t be done until symptoms are present or until the 14th.

Close contacts are asked to take a test Day 0 and again in Day 7.

igCorcaigh

Does anyone know of any geofencing app that automatically turns off Bluetooth when you are at home?

kippy

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Does anyone know of any geofencing app that automatically turns off Bluetooth when you are at home?

Any particular reason for that?

igCorcaigh

kippy wrote: »

Any particular reason for that?

No need for Bluetooth at home, might as well save whatever little battery power that it uses.

kippy

igCorcaigh wrote: »

No need for Bluetooth at home, might as well save whatever little battery power that it uses.

And you don't think installing another app (that uses some other battery eating service - GPS most likely - that you also dont need at home but generally need switched on all the time for GeoFencing reliant apps to work) isn't gonna use more battery power than just leaving bluetooth on all the time?

igCorcaigh

kippy wrote: »

And you don't think installing another app (that uses some other battery eating service - GPS most likely - that you also dont need at home but generally need switched on all the time for GeoFencing reliant apps to work) isn't gonna use more battery power than just leaving bluetooth on all the time?

I'm not too sure

I guess my location service is turned on anyway?

I dunno.

Ficheall

Is it possible to turn off the app? So that it doesn't keep checking if I have my bluetooth on and sending me notifications? I'd like to be able to turn the app on only on the rare occasions when I leave the house. The "Force Stop" option does not work.

wonski

Ficheall wrote: »

Is it possible to turn off the app? So that it doesn't keep checking if I have my bluetooth on and sending me notifications? I'd like to be able to turn the app on only on the rare occasions when I leave the house. The "Force Stop" option does not work.

You can switch exposure notifications in the settings so it will stop collecting and sharing id, however you would have to remember to switch it back on whenever you leave the house, so not sure there is a point.

It's much easier to just leave it on rather than switching off or on which you can easily forget.

Apologies if the question I am about to ask has been covered already. I last checked in here 5 days ago and the conversation is STILL about hacking into the app and I was losing the will to live reading the posts

exposure notifications

When I go to settings in my phone and go to the app settings I can then open a COVID exposure log and see a list. There are checks between 1 and 3 times on any given day.

Is this just the app doing it’s general thing or is it due to a positive COVID in the vicinity and checking had I been in near enough contact?

Peregrinus

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Apologies if the question I am about to ask has been covered already. I last checked in here 5 days ago and the conversation is STILL about hacking into the app and I was losing the will to live reading the posts

exposure notifications

When I go to settings in my phone and go to the app settings I can then open a COVID exposure log and see a list. There are checks between 1 and 3 times on any given day.

Is this just the app doing it’s general thing or is it due to a positive COVID in the vicinity and checking had I been in near enough contact?

What the App does is to compare two lists.

One list a list of (anonymous) identifiers of all the other phones carrying the app that you have been close to for more than 15 minutes in the last fortnight. The app generates this list itself.

The other is a list of (anonymous) identifiers of phones whose users have notified the HSE that they have tested positive in the last fortnight. An updated version of this list is distributed frequently by the HSE to the app; the app uses the most recent version.

If any identifier appears on both lists, you have been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed, and you get an alert telling you this.

So, yeah, the "exposure notifications" is the list sent out by the HSE of identiers of phones whose users have been diagnosed. This is just the app doing its thing. The fact that this list is on your phone does not mean that you have been in the vicinity of any of these people. Your app will compare this list with its own list of identifiers of the phones you have been in contact with, and only if an identifier appears on both lists have you been in the vicinity of a person known to have been diagnosed. You'll know this has happened if and when you get an alert.

plodder

fwiw there is a bug in Android relating to the info displayed in that exposure log. The "number of matches" is correct and you expect that to be zero most of the time. But, the "number of keys" is supposed to be the number of keys downloaded that you are checking against, but it appears to be displaying the same information as "number of matches". Not a serious issue, but a bit confusing if you are curious about this stuff. It was noticed first in the German app.

hmmm

Mary Lou this morning on Radio asked by the presenter whether she had downloaded the app. "I haven't downloaded it yet.....I haven't gotten around to it." She said she would and advised others to download it, but it's a bit disappointing to hear.

ixoy

hmmm wrote: »

Mary Lou this morning on Radio asked by the presenter whether she had downloaded the app. "I haven't downloaded it yet.....I haven't gotten around to it." She said she would and advised others to download it, but it's a bit disappointing to hear.

Very poor - it takes just a minute to open the app store and download / install it.

hmmm

ixoy wrote: »

Very poor - it takes just a minute to open the app store and download / install it.

It's like the mask thing. They may be only person, but when you're a politician in the public eye you should be leading by example.

Stark

She could have it downloaded in the time it takes her to do her usual complaining that "the current government aren't doing enough".

murpho999

hmmm wrote: »

Mary Lou this morning on Radio asked by the presenter whether she had downloaded the app. "I haven't downloaded it yet.....I haven't gotten around to it." She said she would and advised others to download it, but it's a bit disappointing to hear.

ixoy wrote: »

Very poor - it takes just a minute to open the app store and download / install it.

Ha, really, why worry.

Also, no surprise that a Sinn Fein member wouldn't install a tracking app.

YellowBucket

The closest thing similar to the app is the “hotlists” used by credit card companies that are sent to terminals to alert stolen cards.

Every few hours a server is pushing out a refreshed hotlist which just contains the random codes that were generated by anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 and who has agreed to and uploaded their codes. There’s no interaction at all between the HSE and the data in your app otherwise.

When you’re diagnosed, the HSE gives you a password / code to allow you to upload the codes from your phone to their system.

Everyone else’s app simply gets that hotlist and compares the anonymous codes you may have encountered to that hotlist. If it finds a match, it alerts you and you’re invited to call the HSE for further advice, which would be immediate self isolation and probably testing.

If you’re all clear you’re all clear, but if you had COVID, even without symptoms, you have prevented spread by staying out of circulation.

It’s very much about privacy though.

kippy

hmmm wrote: »

Mary Lou this morning on Radio asked by the presenter whether she had downloaded the app. "I haven't downloaded it yet.....I haven't gotten around to it." She said she would and advised others to download it, but it's a bit disappointing to hear.

Heard that - are people who have already had the virus more complacent?
Is there any evidence out there yet as to whether they can get the virus again I wonder?

harringtonp

Great information here. Some posters are very knowledgeable about the workings of the app, presume yous are either involved in the process or have looked in the code which I've seen is open source.

Couple of questions. How often do the codes change on a particular mobile ? Presumably the downloaded list contains up to 2 weeks of codes for each positive person and therefore contains far more entries than the number of registered app cases.

Any info on the format of the random codes ? If I was doing it I'd probably use a version 1 GUID. At least that way you can give a time span to a user of when a match occured.

Stark

This gives an idea as to how the codes are generated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_Privacy-Preserving_Proximity_Tracing#Ephemeral_ID

Irish Aris

Hey everyone, I have a (probably stupid) question:

In the app settings (android), under Contact Tracing, there is an option "Exposure Checks" - mine currently says "12 checks in the past 14 days".
I tried to open it - and it's looking for some kind of numerical verification code.

Does anyone else had this - if so what verification is required? I don't think it is the upload IDs, as this is in the main menu of the app.
Thank you in advance for any help

robinph

Irish Aris wrote: »

Hey everyone, I have a (probably stupid) question:

In the app settings (android), under Contact Tracing, there is an option "Exposure Checks" - mine currently says "12 checks in the past 14 days".
I tried to open it - and it's looking for some kind of numerical verification code.

Does anyone else had this - if so what verification is required? I don't think it is the upload IDs, as this is in the main menu of the app.
Thank you in advance for any help

That is just the number of times that your app has downloaded the list of random codes from people who have since tested positive. Doesn't mean anything as far as how many people you may have had contact with or how many people in the database have tested positive... it just means that the app is working.

wonski

Irish Aris wrote: »

Hey everyone, I have a (probably stupid) question:

In the app settings (android), under Contact Tracing, there is an option "Exposure Checks" - mine currently says "12 checks in the past 14 days".
I tried to open it - and it's looking for some kind of numerical verification code.

Does anyone else had this - if so what verification is required? I don't think it is the upload IDs, as this is in the main menu of the app.
Thank you in advance for any help

It's your phone pin unlock code

Irish Aris

wonski wrote: »

It's your phone pin unlock code

thank you very much!!

poff

After I installed the app, I noticed that there is room for improvements:

• The app shows "total" numbers in its little statistics. Current active numbers would be much more useful rather than totals. The same applies to the county breakdown list.
• The daily confirmed cases graph is not accurately readable - too small or no way of easily getting accurate information.
• A covid check in reminder would be useful
• Entering the country of current stay would be useful as that could make sure that the app and covid warnings would work in the whole of Europe - provided that European apps work in the same way. (Note below)
• The app can not be found by searching for "covid tracker" in the google play store. It can be found using the search term "covidtracker"

(Note) If the app could detect roaming, it then could suggest to enter the country of stay.

average_runner

poff wrote: »

After I installed the app, I noticed that there is room for improvements:

• The app shows "total" numbers in its little statistics. Current active numbers would be much more useful rather than totals. The same applies to the county breakdown list.
• The daily confirmed cases graph is not accurately readable - too small or no way of easily getting accurate information.
• A covid check in reminder would be useful
• Entering the country of current stay would be useful as that could make sure that the app and covid warnings would work in the whole of Europe - provided that European apps work in the same way. (Note below)
• The app can not be found by searching for "covid tracker" in the google play store. It can be found using the search term "covidtracker"

(Note) If the app could detect roaming, it then could suggest to enter the country of stay.

None of the countries in Europe have an agreement or even a share database of cases. Some countries are using a more intrusive way of accessing the info on your phone

Stark

kippy wrote: »

Heard that - are people who have already had the virus more complacent?
Is there any evidence out there yet as to whether they can get the virus again I wonder?

Guy in work had a suspected case of it (it was back when the testing setup was a shambles so didn't get to have it confirmed). Looks like he's now a close contact of another case after meeting up with a friend who came back from abroad and didn't self isolate. Guess we'll find out soon enough if you can get it twice :pac:

(He also reads a lot of right-wing **** so has now become convinced it's all a hoax despite actually having the thing 4 months ago and in his own words "nearly dying").

Beasty

Threads merged

Ficheall

wonski wrote: »

You can switch exposure notifications in the settings so it will stop collecting and sharing id, however you would have to remember to switch it back on whenever you leave the house, so not sure there is a point.

It's much easier to just leave it on rather than switching off or on which you can easily forget.

Cheers. I only leave the house every few weeks