Key Points

• Australian government has emphasized contact tracing and the voluntary use of a contact tracing app, namely the ‘COVIDSafe app’, as core measures in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 (the ‘ticket to a COVID-safe Australia’).
• To gain the public trust necessary for uptake of voluntary app, the government passed unusual legislation, the ‘COVIDSafe Act’ (technically, an amendment to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth)), which is significant both because it provides much stronger privacy protections than previously seen in Australia, and is also unusual among jurisdictions that have introduced ‘COVID-19 apps’.
• There has been considerable controversy about whether the both the app and the Act have sufficient privacy protections, and it is questioned whether the app has been sufficiently effective in achieving its goal of improving contact tracing.
• This article critically analyses whether the ‘COVIDSafe system’ provides enough protections, including transparency, to encourage the trust that is essential for its success, and makes recommendations for improvements to both the legislation and transparency surrounding the COVIDSafe system.
• The legislation has ‘sunset clause’ provisions requiring the COVIDSafe system to be terminated when the app has ceased to be effective, and the effectiveness of these provisions is also questioned.
• The COVIDSafe Act deserves the attention of those who are concerned with framing appropriate constraints for ‘emergency measures’ claimed to be necessary in pandemics and similar disaster management situations. In the COVID-19 context, these include proximity apps, ‘attendance tracking’ and ‘immunity passports’.

中文翻译：

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澳大利亚的“COVIDSafe”接触者追踪法：监控和信任的实验

关键点

• 澳大利亚政府强调接触者追踪和自愿使用接触者追踪应用程序，即“COVIDSafe 应用程序”，作为抗击 COVID-19 传播的核心措施（“通往 COVID-safe 澳大利亚的门票”）。
• 为了获得采用自愿应用程序所需的公众信任，政府通过了不寻常的立法，即“ COVIDSafe 法案”（从技术上讲，是对1988 年隐私法案（Cth）的修正案），这两者都很重要，因为它提供了比以前在澳大利亚出现过，并且在引入“COVID-19 应用程序”的司法管辖区中也很不寻常。
• 关于该应用程序和该法案是否有足够的隐私保护存在相当大的争议，并且质疑该应用程序在实现其改善接触者追踪的目标方面是否足够有效。
• 本文批判性地分析了“COVIDSafe 系统”是否提供了足够的保护，包括透明度，以鼓励对其成功至关重要的信任，并就改进围绕 COVIDSafe 系统的立法和透明度提出建议。
• 立法有“日落条款”规定，要求在应用程序停止有效时终止 COVIDSafe 系统，这些规定的有效性也受到质疑。
• 该COVIDSafe法值得那些谁关心了框架，声称是在流行病和类似灾害管理的情况下必要的“应急措施”适当约束的关注。在 COVID-19 的背景下，这些包括邻近应用程序、“出勤跟踪”和“免疫护照”。