‘Leave Home Safe’ app can be more effective

There has been discussion in these columns on the use of the “Leave Home Safe” app, including how efficiently it deals with close contact notifications.

An issue related to the app that has received little public scrutiny is the amount of data likely generated by users, specifically, the number of close contact cases recorded, or places of close contact.

In response to our request for information under the Code on Access to Information on how contract tracing data is being used to combat the spread of the virus, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said that the matching of close contacts at concerned venues to clients’ visit records collected through the app will not be reported to or used by any central government system and that the app does not have a tracking function.

We understand that the government is being sensitive to the public’s concerns

about personal data privacy. However, we wonder why the government isn’t making use of this user-generated data to refine the app’s functions and efficacy. In previous waves, especially before the fifth wave earlier this year, an analysis of data on close contacts and types of venues visited would have likely made a significant difference in controlling the transmission of the virus.

Moreover, the authors of a study of the CovidSafe app in Australia concluded that “comprehensive effectiveness evaluations” are necessary to justify the use and cost of such technology for public health. Will the Hong Kong government be carrying out such evaluations?

The “Leave Home Safe” app now seems to be little more than a vaccine pass – it no longer notifies users if they have visited the same premises as confirmed Covid-19 cases – yet it retains contact tracing mechanisms, such as notifications and recording the length of stay at a venue. There needs to be much better communication with the public on how and why the app, now a feature of our everyday lives, might be best used to control the transmission of Covid-19 in the future.

Wong Kit-man, Yu Tin-wai and Chau Wan-kit, Kowloon Tong