diamond geezer

Friday, September 25, 2020

Before entering this webpage
please scan the QR code below
using the NHS COVID-19 app

It is now a mandatory requirement to collect details for NHS Test and Trace upon entering a public place.

Over two thousand people gather on this website daily, many of whom may be asymptomatically infected with coronavirus. It is therefore essential that we all check in and share our personal details every time we visit the blog in order to stay alert and control the virus.

Do not scroll down until you have scanned the unique QR code using the NHS COVID-19 app.

If you do not have a smartphone you must enter your details physically.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Collection of Contact Details etc and Related Requirements) Regulations 2020 require that you provide:
(a) the name of the individual;
(b) a telephone number on which the individual may be contacted
(c) an e-mail address if the individual is unable to provide a telephone number;
(d) a postal address if the individual is unable to provide an email address;

name:
telephone number:
e-mail address:
postal address:

Please note that NHS Test and Trace cannot guarantee the security of the personal data you have entered here, just as it cannot guarantee the security of any data you may scribble on a piece of paper before entering a restaurant, bar or leisure centre. The app's much-lauded decentralised security protocols only apply to people with suitable smartphones, and everyone else is stuck with plain text.

Please do not feel tempted to enter false data for contact tracing purposes, even though this is very easy and nobody will ever know.

The new NHS COVID-19 app is now available to download for free in England and Wales. It has a number of tools to protect you including contact tracing, local area alerts and venue check-in. It uses proven technology from Apple and Google designed to protect every user's privacy (unlike the bespoke app the UK was promised in May but which had to be scrapped in favour of something which actually worked).

Checking-in is simplicity itself, using long-standing QR technology with which the entire nation is familiar. Hold your phone near the QR code, or maybe point your camera at it, or perhaps you have to fire up the app first - you'll certainly know which of these it is.

A confirmation screen will pop up displaying your location, while simultaneously storing your location in case anybody else at this location should test positive during the relevant window.

Please note that you remain checked-in on this blog until midnight or until you check in at another location using an NHS QR code, whichever is the earlier. Technically this means that if a reader who tests positive arrives at 3pm but you navigated away at 9am the system doesn't recognise this and may still send you notification to self-isolate for 14 days possibly destroying your livelihood for no good reason... but better safe than sorry.

If you do receive notification to self-isolate you absolutely must do this despite the lack of collaborative evidence. You will not be told who triggered the self-isolation because the system does not know who they were. The privacy of the app is inviolable. On the plus side the system doesn't know who you are either, which is excellent, both for reasons of personal freedom and because if you are told to quarantine and still decide to pop down to the shops nobody official will ever know.

Regrettably users of older iPhones may be unable to download the official NHS app. Users need to have installed iOS 13.5, released in May 2020, because this contains the low-level Bluetooth technology which allows the security protocols to operate. In particular the iPhone 6, last sold in 2018, does not support this upgrade and owners will not be able to protect their loved ones using the NHS COVID-19 app. Cheapskates who can't afford a decent smartphone deserve everything they get.

Intriguingly the sole smartphone requirement in The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Collection of Contact Details etc and Related Requirements) Regulations 2020 is that an individual should use it "to scan the QR code with that smartphone as, or immediately after, they enter the premises". Nothing in the legislation states that the NHS app must have been downloaded, nor that the scanned QR code has to trigger anything whatsoever, so you could probably get away with waving your dud phone at the code and walking straight past, but please don't do that.

Do not question how the NHS COVID-19 app actually works, just be reassured that it probably does. Privacy is paramount, which is the main reason it's taken four months to develop, and the relentless drain on your battery is a small price to pay. Only by testing and tracing can we control the virus, and this is a big step towards making contact tracing almost work. Prompt effective nationwide testing, alas, may take considerably longer.

posted 07:00 :