Europe’s contact-tracing apps are a test of its privacy-focused culture

Governments across Europe are planning the next phase of their response the coronavirus pandemic. What the various strategies have in common is that citizens are asked to download an app to make it easier to track contacts.

Contact tracking, which typically involves healthcare workers interviewing an infected patient to determine who they were in contact with, is becoming increasingly important as governments and businesses around the world roll out versions of mobile apps.

The app was on the phone, constantly running in the background, and jotting down someone else’s phone that it came in contact with. People with the app who tested positive for COVID-19 upload the anonymized list of people they met, and those people receive a notification asking them to isolate themselves.

Contact tracing apps are currently being developed across the continent Germany It will be announced on Friday that the software will be released in the coming weeks. France, Denmark, the UK, Ireland and Italy are also working on their own apps, which are likely to be launched if the blocking restrictions are lifted.

It is part of a wider effort that is taking place around the world. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand have already released their own apps, although their efforts are unlikely to meet EU data protection standards (especially South Korea, combined GPS tracking with credit card transactions and facial recognition). In the United States, Google and Apple are leading efforts to develop a framework that allows contact tracking apps to work on iOS and Android.

Each country has decided to create an app individually to meet its own requirements. Across the EU, however, countries like Italy and Germany use a platform known as PEPP-PT (Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing). The EU too published guidelines On Thursday, it was determined how apps should comply with EU-wide data protection standards, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the data protection directive for electronic communication.

Data protection is Central to the debate about contact tracing apps. Although viewed as a key tool to control the future spread of the coronavirus, they are also open to abuse and are a potential “creep factor” for people who are uncomfortable with the idea of ​​the government or a company tracking their location.

Contact tracing apps can be based on technologies such as GPS or Bluetooth, with Bluetooth being preferred by most European countries. Another important feature of privacy protection is ensuring that carefully anonymized data is stored locally on people’s devices rather than in a central repository.

“This is the first global crisis in which we can use the full force of technology to offer efficient solutions and support exit strategies from the pandemic,” said EU Vice President for Values ​​and Transparency, V EUra Jourová, in a statement. “European trust will be the key to the success of mobile app tracking.”

With a view of Germany

All eyes will be on Germany within Europe. Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn said on Friday that the country’s app will be released in three to four weeks. Reuters reports that this is the case ready and tested when the lock restrictions are lifted. (The Federal Ministry of Health did not respond to a request for comment.) Due to its cultural and legal protection of privacy, the state will be an important test bench for the introduction of contact tracking apps.

A common observation across the country is that after two authoritarian regimes, in which state surveillance of the population played a key role, German citizens are suspicious of anything that resembles a violation of their privacy. Cultural attitudes are supported by strict data protection laws, which are among the strictest in Europe and around the world.

Germany also offers an interesting case study because extensive manual contact tracking and testing has managed to keep the mortality rate much lower than in most other countries. As of Friday, Germany had reported 3,868 deaths from the virus, compared with 28,221 in the United States and 13,729 in the United Kingdom, despite the fifth largest number of confirmed cases worldwide. The country’s response to the virus is being investigated in real time and praised by many around the world (Although closer to home, it also shows cracks in the federal system).

However, it will be of particular interest to many viewers, including other European governments, whether Germany can promote the adoption of its app. For a contact tracking app to be effective, a majority of the population (researchers’ estimates vary between 50% and 80%) must choose to use it. In Singapore, only about every sixth person has downloaded their TraceTogether app for contract tracking Singapore’s National Development Minister, Lawrence Wong, on April 1.

A strong government campaign with media support and, ideally, little to no resistance from data protection advocates will be required to build widespread confidence in the technology. Most technology companies and governments agree that forcing the app to download would create the opposite of trust.

Data protection is not even the only problem that governments have to deal with when it comes to building trust. As with other coronavirus measures, e.g. For example, social distancing, they need to reassure people that the apps have the desired effect so that people believe that signing up is worthwhile (and some of the evidence was shaky).

“We really need this app and we have to convince as many people as possible to use it.” Christian Drosten, both director of the Virological Institute of the Berlin Charité and moderator of a hit podcast that informs the German public about the corona virus, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

For Germany, which appears to be in a fairly advanced stage in the development of its app and which also has to motivate a data protection-conscious population to download the software, the challenge will soon have to be tackled. If Germany can succeed, the country will provide a model that others are likely to follow.