Test and trace system to launch without app amid privacy fears

A modified track and trace system to be announced this week will be entirely reliant on the public handing over key personal data to call centre workers, amid warnings it will prompt a slew of phishing scams. ____________________________________________________  More on coronavirus: ____________________________________________________ Ravi Naik, a solicitor and legal director of data rights agency AWO, said: “The trust element issue is critical if this is to work but the whole process has been so haphazard and underhand that there is not much there. So far, the answers have been opaque.” The Information Commissioner’s Office warned of growing numbers of organisations using the pandemic to set up scams and target the vulnerable, while the Financial Conduct Authority urged the public to be vigilant as “unscrupulous operators” use new phishing methods.  The entire process has been mired in controversy, with ministers initially promising the track and trace app would be rolled out across the UK by mid-May before Boris Johnson vowed that a world-beating system would be in place by June 1.