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Privacy Concerns

Two people holding phones walk past a Google billboard with eyes tracking them and a Facebook billboard with a face watching. They discuss the COVIDSafe app saying, 'Imagine having your every move tracked'.

Mark Knight

20 April 2020

The government rolled out its COVIDSafe app with great fanfare, encouraging the bulk of Australians to download it. It was billed as the swift way to reopen our post-pandemic economy, but privacy advocates were outspoken about potential issues of concern. Across the community these doubts were amplified. However, as Knight comments, they were perhaps misdirected. Equal concern wasn’t being expressed about the pervasive tracking and data collection activities routinely undertaken by international technology giants.