The government authorities in Australia have given a $1.1 million contract to a Western Australian company to develop a new smartphone app that uses facial recognition and GPS tracking technology to monitor people who have been ordered to remain in self-quarantine at home.

According to Stephen Wade (Health minister), the App would be used to track people who arrive in South Australia from interstate Covid-19 hotspots, or who are close contacts of local cases, to ensure that they comply with quarantine directions.

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Government documents affirmed that Perth-based technology company GenVis won the $1,102,310 contract following a selective tender process in November. GenVis is behind WA’s “G2G Now” app, which uses facial recognition and phone location data to check if people in Quarantine are at their registered address. The WA app sends users a push notification to check-in and gives them 5min to take photo of themselves. After that, it matches the photo and location with the user’s registered details to ensure that they are complying with their quarantine direction.

Some of the State opposition leaders have voiced their reservations about the App as they fear that it may be easy to breach or flouting. Additionally, they fear that the roll-out might result in a decrease in physical police checks, which they view as an important element in controlling the state’s Covid19 cases. Chris Picton (SA Labor Party health spokesperson) said that “No matter how good the App is, there will be a move to get around it, which is why it cannot be a replacement for physical check on people quarantining because of this new app.”

South Australia, which has recorded 603 COVID cases since 2020 and had only one current case, awarded the contract valued at AU$1.1 million to GenVis in November 2020. According to state officials, GenVis and the state government are now finalizing the App’s features and delivery date.