COVID-19 tracking: Australian company has the tech ready to go

COVID-19 tracking: Australian company has the tech ready to go

AN Aussie company says it has a solution for tracking COVID-19 outbreaks, and it's technology that has already been used in life-threatening situations across the globe for the better part of a decade.The federal government has said it is developing an app that will allow it to monitor and track the transmission of the coronavirus from person-to-person.It has been estimated that 40 per cent of the population will need to download the app for it to be effective. Amid privacy concerns, a number of Coalition MPs have already declared they won't be downloading the app.

For the past eight years United Network has been using its technology to track down and alert Aussies who are in danger overseas, including during the London Tower terrorist attack and the Nepal earthquake. Unlike the Singapore model the government is investigating, it doesn't rely on an app or just bluetooth, which United Network's managing director Anthony Ghattas said limited an app's effectiveness."Bluetooth works well but it has limitations - a lot of people disable it, older people don't know how to turn it on," Mr Ghattas said."We've been doing this for a number of years now and we've learnt that you can't assume people do anything other than turn their phone on."Instead, United Network's platform combines GPS data, GSM signal, WiFi and bluetooth." When you overlay all of those layers, you get a high degree of accuracy," Mr Ghattas said."We've spent eight years and tens of millions of dollars refining our process. This is the best way to do it."

The United Network tech could be deployed quickly in Australia, company chair Victor Tsaccounis said, because it already met the nation's privacy and security requirements."In the event of an outbreak of the virus, we can look at the historical data of anyone in that area at that time, and send alerts to those people to make them aware, asking them to stay home, monitor their symptoms and get tested," Mr Tsaccounis said.It's even possible to create a "geofence", which would send an alert to anyone coming in or out of a particularly area, such as a shopping centre or suburb where there has been an outbreak of COVID-19.

While the Singapore model requires the app to run in the device's foreground, United Network's tech doesn't need an app to work."You don't have to do anything other than turn your device on," Mr Tsaccounis said. "We could create an app if needed, but there are fewer issues without an app."United Network wants to pitch their platform to the government as an Australian solution to an Australian problem, and one that has proven success internationally."We've been doing this for eight years, so while this is new for the government, it's not new for us," Mr Tsaccounis said. "We've sent alerts out about thousands and thousands of events around the world, helping Aussies get the information they need to get out of danger.

"We're asking politicians and the government to engage with us."

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6727200/aussie-tech-company-has-solution-to-tracking-covid-19