What sets Europe’s virus contact tracing apps apart
Over 20 nations turn to technology to break chain of Covid-19 infection
In the absence of a cure or vaccine for Covid-19. over 20 countries in Europe have turned to technology to contribute to broader efforts to contain the pandemic.
List of countries
In the European Union, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Latvia and Poland have launched apps using the Google-Apple standard. Outside the bloc, similar apps are now live in Switzerland, Northern Ireland and Gibraltar. Another nine EU countries plan Google-Apple apps, which would by design be interoperable. France and Hungary have launched a different type of app that stores information on a central server.
France and Hungary have launched a different type of app that stores information on a central server.
How do the apps work?
The apps typically show a ‘green’, or safe, status. Should the user spend more than 15 minutes within two metres of another app holder who then tests positive and uploads the result, they would get an exposure notification. What happens next varies: Germany’s app advises users to seek medical advice; the Swiss shares a hotline number to call; while in Ireland users can opt to sharing their phone number and get a callback from a contact tracer.
Will they do the job?
The design of Bluetoothbased 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. Most privacy-oriented apps make it impossible for their administrators to monitor exposure notifications - a key way to measure whether the apps are doing the job.
Yet the Google-Apple framework does allow monitoring of exposure notifications. This is enabled in the Irish app which also has addons such as a symptom tracker, where users can volunteer to share information on how they feel, helping the health authorities to map the pandemic.