Wellington City Council is making it easier for people and businesses to get back to work and play under Alert Levels 1 and 2 by using a secure, easy-to-use contact tracing app, called Rippl.

“With many Council services reopening under Alert Level 2 we needed a secure tool for contact tracing which was easy to set up and use, which protected peoples’ information and privacy,” says Mayor Andy Foster. “We have partnered with Wellington software developers, PaperKite, to use Rippl across most Council services.

“Wellington City Council has also secured a number of three month licences which we are offering to Council Controlled Organisations and Wellington’s cultural, sporting, recreation, business and community organisations. We are doing this to help make it easier for people moving around the city by using the same processes for managing contact tracing,” says the Mayor.

Client Success Director at PaperKite, Antony Dixon says: “With Rippl we’ve created a smart, simple solution for contact tracing which protects everyone’s privacy.

“Rippl is simple to set up and use. Once an organisation registers online they receive a unique QR Code on a poster to print off and display it at their entrances. People with the Rippl app on their smartphone can scan the QR code as they enter, and check out on their phone when they leave.”

Rippl does not request any personal contact details, nor use location services or GPS data. The only data it holds about where a person has been is the data they scanned into it when they check in and out of a place. It enables health services to send an alert direct to their phone should they need to advise them of any possible contact with Covid-19 and what to do.

Rippl will be used at all Council sites alongside membership (such as the Envibe system used at the pools) and paper-based sign-in systems for people who don’t have smartphones, or prefer not to use apps.

People can download the free Rippl app to their smartphone from the Apple iOS App or Google Play App stores now.

Wellington businesses can take up the Wellington City Council offer for a free three-month licence by registering from 9am Wednesday 13 May on the PaperKite website.

Organisations will need to register a licence for every location which is open to the public.

This offer is only available to cultural, recreation, business and community organisations in and across Wellington city wards and suburbs.

Rippl is currently available at $35 per licence.

More details about how Wellington City Council plans to use Rippl across most of its sites is available on the Council website at wellington.govt.nz/tracing for help and support.

Info for Businesses - wellington.govt.nz/rippl and wellington.govt.nz/ripple

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