The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has published its final COVIDsafe report and wound up its COVIDSafe assessment program, with zero privacy concerns reported in the last six months.

The OAIC says it received no complaints or data breach notifications about the COVIDSafe system in the last reporting period.

“During the reporting period 16 May to 15 November 2022, the OAIC received no enquiries or complaints about the COVIDSafe system,” the report says.

The first COVIDSafe report published in November 2020 reported 11 enquiries and no complaints.

Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk said the OAIC’s last two assessments also confirmed all COVID app data had been deleted from the National COVIDSafe data store in line with legislative requirements.

‘Privacy protections worked’

In May 2020, the OAIC was given additional functions and powers in relation to COVIDSafe with the Commissioner to report every six months.

The lack of complaints or notifications showed privacy protections around the CovidSafe app had worked, Ms Falk said.

Some 7.9 million Australians registered with COVIDSafe, which was developed by the health department and the DTA and launched in April 2020 to manage the spread of covid in Australia.

However, fewer than 800 users consented to their data being added to the National COVIDSafe Data Store for contact tracing, the government says.

As reported by Government News, a government report released a year ago found there had only been limited use of the COVIDSafe app.

The Labor government has slammed the $21 million app as wasteful and ineffective, saying it only managed to identifying two positive cases that weren’t picked up by manual methods since its launch.

Health minister Mark Butler killed the app off in August 2022.

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