COVID Alert app could result in some people being ID’d – CBC
Identification ‘highly improbable’ but not impossible, office of privacy commissioner says
Aug 05, 2020
The federal government’s new COVID Alert app doesn’t offer 100 per cent privacy and could allow some who test positive for the coronavirus to be identified, particularly those who live in small communities or who don’t interact with many people.
When the government unveiled the app on Friday, it stressed that users’ privacy is protected because it “has no way of knowing your location, your name or address,” among other details.
Those who download the app and later test positive enter a special code to notify people who have been near them for at least 15 minutes sometime over the previous two weeks. The notification doesn’t identify who tested positive and maintains their privacy, the government said.
The government employees who developed it say, in a blog, that they wanted to describe the app’s handling of information as “anonymous.”
Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-alert-app-privacy-1.5674392
