Australian government launches controversial coronavirus tracing app, promising to legislate privacy protections around it
Residents observe a moment of silence at dawn in front of the Opera House in Sydney on April 25, 2020.
"We are winning, but we have not yet won," Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a televised briefing announcing the app's launch The app's stored contact data will enable health officials to trace people potentially exposed to infections. A few countries, including South Korea and Israel, are using high-tech methods of contact tracing which involves tracking peoples' locations via phone networks, though such centralized, surveillance-based approaches are viewed as invasive and unacceptable in many countries.
On Sunday, Australia's states of Queen island and Western Australia said they would slightly ease social distancing rules this week to allow for larger outdoor public gatherings, among others, but officials in Victoria, second-most populous state, said they were not ready to relax the state's hardline restrictions.
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