Quebec officials are warning people to be wary of phone apps designed deliberately to mimic the look of the app used for the province’s COVID-19 vaccine passport.
The provincial health ministry issued a statement Saturday saying the visual developed for the VaxiCode app has been copied and used in look-alike apps approved for download on Google Play.
The statement says authorities have contacted Google to have the look-alike apps removed from its app store.
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Officials say this has no effect on the security or integrity of the government’s VaxiCode app — which does not contain ads and doesn’t require access to the phone camera, unlike the mimic apps.
The government’s release said people need to make sure that when downloading the correct app, to search for the exact “VaxiCode” name on app stores with no accents and no words before or after.
As for merchants who download the verification version, the goverment says they need to download “VaxiCode Verif,” also without accents or words before or after.
–with files from the Canadian Press