A test version of the NHS’s coronavirus contact-tracking app has been published to Apple and Google’s app stores.

Council staff and healthcare workers on the Isle of Wight were invited to install it, ahead of wider roll-out throughout the island.

Project chiefs have said that their so-called “centralised” approach gives them advantages over a rival scheme advocated by the US tech giants some privacy experts.

But fresh concerns have been raised.

The Information Commission’s Office has declared that “as a general rule, a decentralised approach” would better follow its principles that organisations should minimise the amount of personal data they collect.

The House of Commons’ Human Rights Select Committee also discussed fears about NHSX’s plan to extend the app to record location data.

Law professor, Orla Lynsky, cautioned: “There is an inherent risk that I you create a system that can be added to incrementally , you can do so in a way that is very privacy invasive”.

But NHSX has stressed: use of the app will be voluntary the only personal data stored by the app at the start will be the final part of the user’s postcode additional location data will only be recorded if users agree to a further opt-in request.