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 A growing number of countries in the region have opted to use
Bluetooth short-range radio to measure the risk of exposure, after
concluding that tracking people's movements using location data
would be intrusive.
European Union member states hope soon to agree a common approach
for an international 'roaming' feature that could help revive travel
and tourism.
WHAT'S THE STORY SO FAR?
Since there is no cure for COVID-19, governments have turned to
technology to create a sort of digital 'herd immunity' against the
flu-like disease.
After initial efforts misfired, Apple and Alphabet's Google - whose
iOS and Android operating systems run 99% of the world's smartphones
- developed a standard that logs contacts securely on devices.
Germany joins a growing list of European countries - led by
Switzerland, Italy, Poland and Latvia - to create Bluetooth apps
based on this decentralized approach.
HOW DOES THE GERMAN APP WORK?
Germany's Covid-Warn-App, developed by SAP and Deutsche Telekom,
will be available for download on Monday night from the Apple App
Store and Google Play Store.
Once the app is installed it will typically show a 'green', or safe,
status.
Should the user spend more than 15 minutes within two meters of
another app holder who later tests positive for COVID-19, they would
receive a notification advising them to seek medical advice.
WHAT ARE THE SECURITY FEATURES?
The Bluetooth exchanges logged securely on devices are encrypted and
pseudonyms are used, so the identity of the other person is not
known.
In another security feature, positive test results would be uploaded
by the German app using a QR code from the lab.
Other phones scan the system and, if one finds a so-called infected
key in its log, the holder receives an exposure notification. No
data is stored centrally, making it impossible to reconstruct an
individual's relationships.
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SOUNDS COMPLICATED - WILL IT WORK?
The design of Bluetooth-based apps represents a trade-off between
usefulness and privacy. It is not possible, for example, to pinpoint
the exact time and place of risk events from the app alone.
Protecting privacy, though, is a key selling point for the German
app, which is voluntary and will need to be adopted by a large share
of the population to be useful.
Norway on Monday halted its COVID-19 app after the country's data
protection watchdog objected to the app's collection of location
data as disproportionate to the task, and called for a
Bluetooth-only approach.
Germany's app is intended to complement, not replace, existing
contact tracing efforts that rely on interviewing people who fall
ill with COVID-19 and calling people they have met.
Where the app can come in useful is in public settings - such as a
train trip or bus ride - where people don't know each other. Its
speed is also a plus as COVID-19 can be spread by people who have
yet to develop symptoms.
WHAT ABOUT FOREIGN TRAVEL?
Although the apps are national, the idea is that they should be able
to 'talk' to each other. Such interoperability would make it
possible to monitor infection risks when people travel between
countries.
EU member states have already agreed on broad guidelines for
interoperability, and are close to backing the creation of a central
gateway to handle data traffic between the apps based on the
Google-Apple standard, sources say.
(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Mark Potter)
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