In what seems like a chapter out of Orwell’s 1984 novel, a new phone app is set to track people’s movements during COVID-19.

Australia will take up technology already being used in Singapore, China and the Czech Republic to trace people’s every move during the pandemic

The tracker – to be dubbed TraceTogether – would be offered up as a downloadable app on people’s Smartphones, with alerts for if they come into contact with a COVID-19 case.

However, for it to be affective, about 40 per cent of all Australians will need to sign up.

How will it work

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said the app would not replace the human contact tracing currently underway.

“What the app would do would be able to determine who you had been closer to for greater than a 15-minute period, which is what we can define as ‘close contact’ through Bluetooth technology,” he said.

“That information would be stored locally and privately on an individual’s mobile phone, only to be released if the person was diagnosed with COVID-19.

“So, with that in mind, you can imagine the contact tracers have to call individuals and their recollection of contact might not be perfect, so it provides an added information technology source of that information so that the contact tracing can be even better than it already is at the moment.”

Privacy vs health and safety

Concerns about the efficacy of the app were quickly raised by organisations like the Human Rights Centre.

But tech giants Google and Apple say the bluetooth technology used to track people in this way would not be used after the pandemic was over.

Dr Coatsworth said the private information collected by the app would not be stored beyond the virus.

The “weapon” to flatten the curve for the long term

Dr Coatsworth said the app could be the “fundamental weapon” against coronavirus.

“The app will offer an enhanced ability for case detection and the interruption of transmission chains,” he said.

Mr Morrison said the technology could save lives.

“What would happen then is the health authorities, who are the only ones who’d have access to that data, would contact those people just like they do now,” he said.

“At the end of the day it would mean we’d save lives and save more livelihoods.”

Other technology already being used to track people in WA

Premier Mark McGowan last week announced those who broke quarantine and isolation orders would be fitted with ankle bracelets to track them and ensure they didn’t break the rules again.

Mr McGowan said the measures would help protect West Australians in “a dangerous time”.

The bracelets were part of a funding boost to the WA police force of more than $90 million, which also included automatic number plate detection technology.

More Perth coronavirus news on SoPerth.com.au.