Over 400,000 people people have downloaded the COVID-19 contact tracing app since it was launched.
The app informs you if you have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
It uses a "bluetooth handshake" to speak to other devices and registers when you have been close together for about 15 minutes.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said privacy had been placed "right at the heart” of the design and insisted that "every single person who downloads this app makes Ireland safer.”
The HSE has said no personal information is given out and nobody will know the identity of the person who tests positive.
The app also includes a symptom check feature where you can describe your condition.
Newstalk Tech Correspondent Jess Kelly explained how it works this morning.
“The app is fully free to download on both IOS and Android,” she said.
“The way it works is through Bluetooth. If you come into close contact with a person for a specific period of time, the app will get in touch with the contact tracing team which will issue the person with COVID-19 a code and then a notification will appear on the phones of anyone who has been in close contact with the infected person.
“It has been designed to be as data-light as possible. They are saying they are not collecting person al information; it is very much used as a notification tool.
“You may see that your location settings are required but that is to enable the Bluetooth to work, rather than tracking where you have been or where you are going.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly at the launch of the COVID Tracker App, 07-07-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNewsHowever, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has raised several concerns about the app.
The council said it is not clear how accurately the app detects close contacts with independent research suggesting it may become less accurate depending on where it is being used.
It said the ‘location data and symptom tracing’ features of the app may be in breach of European data protection guidance, which states that COVID-19 apps must have a “single purpose of contact tracing.”
It also said it is “very concerned that Google/Apple will have ultimate control over most of the EU’s Covid-19 app ecosystem, and not our governments.”
Surveillance
ICCL Executive Director Liam Herrick said the app is essentially a surveillance device.
“That might be justified if we could see that it definitely would have a significant benefit; however, the research, including research carried out in Ireland casts a very significant doubt over whether this technology is going to work in the field,” he said.
“I think we still have not seen evidence that shows this will meet the evidence that has been claimed for it in actually supporting the tracing operation.”
Around €850,000 has been spent on developing the app since it was announced in late March.
Listen back to Jess Kelly's explanation of how the app works here:
