LeaveHomeSafe Glitch Caused By Lack Of Testing: Govt

The government's top IT official said on Thursday that there was a technical glitch with the updated version of the LeaveHomeSafe app in part because officials didn’t conduct beta testing before making it available.

For some Android or Huawei phone users, their vaccination and recovery records as well as exemption codes stored in the app were deleted after they updated to the app's 3.2.4 version.

The problem has since been rectified with another update.

The Government Chief Information Officer, Victor Lam, said internal testing is usually carried out when bigger updates are involved.

He told an RTHK programme that officials didn’t do the same this time because they thought the changes were minor.

"The update involved very small changes. If the contractor and our office were more stringent with the testing, this [technical] issue could've been avoided," Lam said.

He apologised to the public for the inconvenience, saying his office has received around 100 enquiries.

He conceded that the incident may affect people's confidence in the LeaveHomeSafe app, and stressed internal testing will be carried out for all updates in future.

The government official urged those who’ve had their records or codes deleted to download them again from the government's vaccination website.

Lam also said his department is considering setting up a dedicated hotline within the next fortnight to help those who have problems using the app.