The development process of the COVID Tracker app began on 22 March 2020 when the
Health Service Executive (HSE) contacted
Waterford tech company NearForm to build a
contact tracing app for
Ireland using existing
Bluetooth technology in smartphones to support
contact tracing.[6] The €850,000 project involved representatives from the
Department of Health, the
Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), the
Garda Síochána, the
Irish Army and
Science Foundation Ireland.[10][11] NearForm was originally working on a centralised app that would group users' data together for authorities to study,[12] but in May 2020, the development team contacted
Apple and
Google to secure beta access to the
Exposure Notifications System (ENS) developed by the two companies, which allows the COVID Tracker app to guarantee the anonymity of users and ensure any data transfer to contact tracers would happen only with user consent.[10][13][14] Within three months of development, the team had a secure, tested and reliable contact tracing app that worked and was ready to be deployed on a national scale.[6] The COVID Tracker app was launched by the
Government of Ireland and the HSE on 7 July 2020 with 862,000 downloads on the first day of launch.[15]
On 19 October, the COVID Tracker app became one of the first wave of national apps linked with other countries across the
European Union after being linked with similar
contact tracing apps from
Italy and
Germany.[22]
Any phone users are in
close contact with that also has the app installed.[24]
The distance between users' phone and another app users' phone.[24]
The length of time users' phone is near another app users' phone.[24]
Every two hours the app downloads a list of anonymous codes which have been shared with the
Health Service Executive (HSE) by other people using the app who have tested positive for COVID-19.[25] If a user have been closer than 2 metres for more than 15 minutes with any of these phones, that user will get an alert notification on their phone.[26][27]
The app requires users to turn on the Exposure Notifications service and will only be available to those with phones running
Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher, or
iOS 13.5 or higher.[28]
Privacy and data
The
Health Service Executive claims that the COVID Tracker app protects the privacy of all users and was designed to protect users' privacy.[29][30]
On 9 August 2020, it was announced that the HSE was working with
Google to identify and fix phone battery issues after the COVID Tracker app was reportedly draining
Android users' batteries in 5 hours.[36][37] On 10 August, it was reported that 10% of Android users (86,000) uninstalled the app, following battery drainage issues.[38][39] On 11 August, the HSE announced that an update had been rolled out to 70% of Android phones, which is expected to fix the issue, and that 45,000 people had reinstalled the app in the last few days.[40]