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Northern Ireland's minister of health has said he will not encourage people to download the UK's contact-tracing app when it is made available in the region.
Robin Swann told the Northern Ireland Assembly's committee for health on Wednesday that it was "not compulsory" for residents to download the NHS app, built by its digital department NHSX to track
COVID-19
infections.
Speaking about the app,
which is currently being trialled on the Isle of Wight
, he said: "We're part of the UK so we will have access to it whether we want it or not. It is up to anybody to download it."
Image:Northern Ireland's minister of health Robin Swann has criticised the NHS app
Mr Swann added that Northern Ireland was instead working on "a Northern Ireland version" of the contact-tracing app, the first devolved administration to do so.
He told the committee this was necessary to ensure it worked with the one being developed in the Republic of Ireland.
"We have to ensure that we progress the work done for a Northern Ireland version so that it can interact with the Republic of Ireland app," he said.
The Republic of Ireland has said it will use a decentralised model for its app, with checks to see who might be at risk taking place on each user's device.
Mr Swann criticised the NHSX app, which performs those checks on a central server - an approach which makes it difficult for the app to work efficiently on modern smartphones, in particular Apple's iPhones.
He said there had been "difficulties" and "uncertainties" about the app, especially around "who owns the data", and told the committee that he was focused on manual contact tracing, rather than technological solutions.
Image:Mr Swann added questions had been raised over 'who owns the data'. File pic
Mr Swann's criticism was echoed by deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill, who told another committee on Wednesday that she didn't personally support the centralisation of data from a "human rights point of view".
Ms O'Neill confirmed that representatives from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland had met this week to discuss a common system.
Ministers from north and south of the border signed a memorandum of understanding in April, promising a coordinated approach to tackling the virus.
The move by Northern Ireland raised questions about the future of the NHSX app, which has been criticised for posing privacy risks and for usability flaws, such as not working on older Android smartphones.
Experts said the design of the NHSX app would come under further scrutiny now that
Google and Apple have released contact-tracing software on to smartphones
, making it easier for countries to build decentralised apps.
Technology researcher Rachel Coldicutt said: "This situation was entirely predictable and it shows that a global emergency is not a great time to go it alone.
"International cooperation will become more important as countries re-open, and NHSX's determination to forge its own path could create more problems down the line."
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NHSX says a centralised approach is necessary to gather more data for epidemiologists, and to allow users to self-report symptoms, which is hard to do securely in a decentralised system.
Yet despite claiming that the Isle of Wight trial has been successful, in recent days UK government ministers downplayed the importance of the app, compared to human contact-tracing.
Junior health minister Lord Bethell said on Tuesday that the government had "changed the emphasis of our communications and plans to put human contact-tracing at the beginning of our plans, and to regard the app as something that will come later in support."
