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Strengthening privacy protections for COVIDSafe app users
Strengthening privacy protections for
COVIDSafe app users
26 May 2020
Tags:
Security (/taxonomy/term/14) Privacy (/taxonomy/term/251)
COVID-19 (/taxonomy/term/413) COVIDSafe (/taxonomy/term/419)
Today’s update to the COVIDSafe application includes accessibility and security enhancements
that further strengthen the privacy of users.
As we continue to iteratively enhance the COVIDSafe app, protecting the privacy of Australians
is at the forefront of our efforts.
Today’s update to the COVIDSafe app builds on previous releases and delivers strengthened
privacy as well as enhanced accessibility. The update will be progressively made available to
users through the App Stores from today.
We will continue to update the app, based on internal reviews and feedback from users and
the technology community.
We strongly encourage all Australians using COVIDSafe to update the app and benefit from the
new changes.
Details of COVIDSafe update
Enhanced accessibility
Today’s release improves accessibility for people who use text to speech technology, which
helps them navigate and use the COVIDSafe application.
Improvements include better descriptions of fields within the app, such as the age range
selection when registering, and better recognition of back arrows.
Strengthened privacy protections
We have also introduced new measures to the Bluetooth contact tracing protocol to further
enhance the protection and anonymity of users by allowing the removal of Android device
names. We have also added an extra layer of encryption for the digital handshake.
We would like to thank the members of the community, including software developers and
researchers, who have worked with us in addressing these issues.
Source code update and next release
The application source code, which is available to the public, has been updated in line with
today’s release. We are currently working on the next COVIDSafe update, which will be released
in June.
Visit the
COVIDSafe (https://covidsafe.gov.au/) website for more information or to access the
source code for the COVIDSafe application.
For media enquiries email us at xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx (mailto:xxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx)
For other enquiries email us at
xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx (mailto:xxxx@xxx.xxx.xx)
© Commonwealth of Australia. With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and
where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under the CC BY 4.0 license.
