Three big customers, two big tweets, and one hella massive push: the first week of Rippl

Reflecting back on the week that’s gone by since Rippl went above the line, we are left dizzy and exhilarated and proud, all at the same time. Here’s a summary of what went down.

Simon Li

Mon 18th May, 2020

App Development, Chatbots, Covid-19, Privacy, Rippl

Reflecting back on the week that’s gone by since Rippl went above the line, I’m left dizzy and exhilarated and proud, all at the same time.

Here’s a summary of what went down.

Wellington City Council, Dunedin City Council, and Cotton On took up Rippl

It’s been so fulfilling to have two city councils, across Wellington and Dunedin, adopt Rippl as their contact tracing solution of choice. Not just for their council sites, but for businesses and organisations throughout their cities. Using Abletech’s AddressFinder, any Dunedin or Wellington operation with a valid postal code can register for three months of Rippl absolutely free. Outstanding generosity and leadership from these two amazing councils, making #privacyfirst a priority for their communities in the process.

It’s also been inspiring to discover that, despite the government not requiring Contact Tracing in the retail sector, many shops are still taking up Rippl barcodes anyway. Why? Because their customers are asking for it! Are we starting a movement here..?!

It absolutely matches the fantastic conversation I had with leadership at Cotton On. They had a clear intent to go above and beyond for their customers when they re-opened their doors, to give them confidence that they’re safe and can be responsible in tracing their own movements. So we were delighted that Cotton On chose to adopt Rippl across all of their stores nationwide. What a way to help NZ’s Team of 5 million do their bit to help stamp out the virus.

Government support for Rippl

There’s a plethora of kiwi digital solutions out there for helping businesses meet contact tracing requirements. And with so many related questions, it was clearly important to the NZ public that Wellington City Council communicate confidence in Rippl, their chosen solution. Throughout, it remains critical for us that users never share their personal details with Rippl – a key point of difference with every other solution we’ve seen.

Gratefully, we also have good relationships with key government agencies. And we continue to be impressed with the way the government is proactively engaging with us on this. That being said, we can only share so much publicly. That’s why we were grateful for WCC to tweet that “MoH has confirmed @Rippl_NZ is compliant with their guidelines”. Reassuring for everyone all round, I’m sure.

Kia ora, Council staff have been in ongoing conversations with @minhealthnz and other central government agencies. MoH are in the process of publishing their guidelines. MoH has confirmed @Rippl_NZ is compliant with their guidelines ^ML
— Wellington City Council (@WgtnCC) May 15, 2020

Rippl got tested against the Privacy Act, and fared well

I am so grateful that Sean Audain and the team at the Wellington City Council not only performed a Privacy Impact Assessment, but also made public its findings, to help readers understand how compliant Rippl is with the principles of the Privacy Act.

Here’s a little snap of the assessment, and you can read the whole thing here.

A weekend of barista-made coffee

I really had no idea just how energised I was going to feel just by sitting in my local cafe. “It’s a vibe for sure” so said my server for the morning, after dropping off my trim flat white. And to hear from the manager that they’d switched from another tracing solution to Rippl, and that we’d nailed the customer experience given how fast it was to scan and come in (no need to type in your details after all – especially tiresome for regular customers)… So good!

After only a week, Rippl is now on thousands and thousands of smartphones, and growing. And after so many late nights, heartfelt efforts, and too many QR codes to count, it’s been worth it. And we’re well on the way to helping everyone in New Zealand keep the virus at bay. The mission is what matters after all, and I’m looking forward to achieving it with you.