DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

careFIJI app access restricted to health authorities, says Baravilala

Personal information collected through the careFIJI mobile phone application will only be accessed by medical authorities upon request to individuals.

The clarification was made by the Director-General of Digital Government Transformation, Cybersecurity and Communications, Tupoutua’h Baravilala, yesterday. She said the app does not collect real-time information.

Users, who may also have come into contact with COVID-19 patients, will also be contacted through the ministry’s contact tracing efforts.

Ms Baravilala said information sent on the app was anonymised and encrypted, and collected minimal information such as the user’s encrypted mobile number, time, date and close proximity to COVID-19 patients.

“The information that is collected by the app is only sent across when a person gets sick, gets tested for COVID-19 and is positive. The Ministry of Health and Medical Services will then request for this person to send that minimal information to them so that they can then do their manual contact she said.

Ms Baravilala clarified that the app does not collect user’s location information, however when installing the app on an android phone, users may be asked to allow the app to access the phone’s location.

She said Bluetooth on android phones were linked to location service and once android users had installed the app and registered, they could switch off the location option because it was not needed by the app. tracing efforts,”