French app to trace virus starts despite data debate

PARIS — France is rolling out an official coronavirus contact-tracing app aimed at containing fresh outbreaks as lockdown restrictions gradually ease, becoming the first major European country to deploy the smartphone technology amid simmering debates over data privacy.

The StopCovid app launched Tuesday just as the French government started allowing people to again go to restaurants and cafes, parks and beaches and museums and monuments. It was available on Apple’s App store and the Google Play store.

Neighbors, including the U.K., Germany, Italy and Switzerland, are developing their own apps, though they’re using different technical protocols, raising questions about compatibility across Europe’s borders.

Authorities hope the app can help manage virus flare-ups as they reopen the economy in France, which has been living under some of Europe’s tightest restrictions since it became one of countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 29,000 deaths.

The various European apps use low-energy Bluetooth signals to anonymously log the nearby presence of other users.

Under the French system, data is uploaded to government-run centralized servers. Users who test positive will be able to notify others who have been in close contact for at least 15 minutes so they can selfisolate and seek treatment.

France, like Britain, rejected a mobile software interface for tracing apps jointly developed by U.S. tech giants Google and Apple, instead choosing to build its own.