NHS Covid Scotland app: FOI release

Information requested

1) Can you confirm that the app requires iOS 13 or later to function?

2) Can you also indicate when this change occurred and how you informed users with earlier IOS that the app would no longer work?

3) Can you supply the number of users affected by this change ?

Response

1) Can you confirm that the app requires iOS 13 or later to function?
Response: This is correct. The NHS Scotland Covid Status App operates on any iPhone that receives security updates to its operating system from Apple – this means any iPhone running iOS 13 or later (in practice, this is any iPhone released since 2015). Mobile devices intrinsically exist on the internet therefore are exposed to an inherent risk of malware if not security patched to the latest recommended level specified by vendors. In Apple’s case, they only supply security patches to iOS 13 and above, with older versions of iOS no longer supported by Apple.

2) Can you also indicate when this change occurred and how you informed users with earlier iOS that the app would no longer work?
Response: The change was made via a regular scheduled update to the App on 11 April. This change was communicated in advance on NHS Inform.

3) Can you supply the number of users affected by this change ?
Response: Of those users who chose to share their metrics with us anonymously, less than 1% continued to use out of date Apple software (iOS 12 and below).

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.