First announced in late March, the HSE’s Covid-19 contact/exposure tracing app was based on a seemingly simple idea - use a smartphone’s wireless sensors to identify when a person had been near to someone with Covid-19.
The app could then warn that they may be at greater risk of infection, making the work of the HSE’s contact tracing team much easier.
Similar to an app launched in Singapore a week earlier, the HSE’s version was supposed to arrive within days of its announcement, and would be an important tool in the country’s fight against the virus.
Bu two months - and multiple target dates - later, it is still not available. Of note to privacy experts too is the fact that, weeks after being unveiled, very little is still known about the