Privacy fears lead Germany to switch to safer virus tracing app
THE German government yesterday switched its coronavirus-tracing app to a version supported by Google and Apple, ditching a German-led alternative that had been heavily criticised for putting people’s privacy at risk.
The original app was set to store users’ contact tracing data on a central server but those plans were shelved in the face of public pressure. The government will instead develop an app that requires cooperation with the two tech giants to collate and compile data in a decentralised, anonymous fashion.
Jens Spahn, Germany’s health minister, said the government favoured using “decentralised software architecture”, arguing that it was more likely to be accepted by the broader public and would therefore be more effective.
Concerns about privacy are deeply rooted in the German psyche due to the use of surveillance in the former East Germany and during the Nazi period.
“Our goal is for the tracing app to be ready for use very soon and with strong acceptance from the public and civil society,” Mr Spahn said. “We are pursuing an approach to developing a tracing app that is voluntary, complies with data protection laws and guarantees a high level of IT security.”
Research suggests that in order for contract tracing apps to be effective they need to be adopted by large sections of the population. Researchers from Oxford University said in midapril that 60 per cent of the population would need to use the app to stop the pandemic, although it can be beneficial even with a lower sign-up rate.
Several countries, including the UK, are working on similar programmes. The Australian government launched a tracing app this weekend which will log when a user gets within 1.5 metres of another person with the app open and the contact lasts for 15 minutes or more.
With Germany’s new app – voluntarily downloaded by members of the public – smartphones that come near each other would exchange crypto keys via Bluetooth and would change every 10 to 20 minutes, thereby providing information on users who have come into contact with one another but without allowing for individuals to be traced.
According to German media reports, people who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the coronavirus will receive a notification that they need to take a test.
The decentralised app is favoured by experts as private-user data will not be located in a central facility or server.
Instead, data on movements will be processed from individual phones and sent without user information to Apple and Google – which run the IOS and Android operating systems – once a day, before being passed on to the government. Google and Apple will also be unable to trace individual users, under the plan. Authorities say the app will be available in the coming weeks.
In the UK, NHSX, the digital arm of the NHS, is developing a contact-tracing app that will similarly use phones’ Bluetooth connections to log which people come into contact with each other.
The Telegraph understands that when a user comes down with flu-like symptoms they will be able to answer questions in the app, which will diagnose the likelihood of them having Covid-19. If so, a notification will be sent to all the people logged as being in contact with that user telling them to self-isolate, and the user will be directed to get tested. If the test comes back negative a second alert will be sent out telling people they can stop self-isolating.
According to the NHS, the Government will not know the identity of the user. However, Matthew Gould, CEO of NHSX, has said that it may ask users to volunteer some location data, to help it track coronavirus hotspots.