was published As the French Warning the App in the “StopCovid” a week ago, warned the government in Paris, the population with drastic words: If the App won’t use, give it “more Infected, more Deaths, and a faster return to a state of emergency,” says Digital-Secretary of state, Cédric O. a Few days later, the Cabinet member referred to as a “good Start”. More than a Million people in France have downloaded the App according to the government, in the first four days and enabled.
nevertheless, the application makes technical problems. Especially the building up of contacts between iPhones hooks, if the App is not running in the foreground or the Smartphone is in the power saving mode. A phenomenon that has to do with the French exceptionalism in the App development. “StopCovid” not back to cash in on the new interfaces from Google and Apple. Thus, it is possible that two iPhone users have installed the App, the minimum requirement of 15 minutes of close contact at a distance of about one Meter, but both Apps do not register the contact.
tourism is currently unusable
in addition to technical shortcomings, the question is also open whether “StopCovid” also helps tourists and business travelers. The App can be before you travel to foreign mobile phones installed, but for the tourist the area of their use is only in the most narrow limits possible.
For a sick message in the App, the user needs the Code of a failed French Corona Tests. The Corona-Test fails after you return from the holidays in the home, would the System “blind”. Contact persons were not warned.
armed to the App architecture
Technically less problematic in terms of the iPhone’s limitations, the German Corona-Warning App, the is to go is likely to be in a few days at the Start. From the construction it works like the French. It registers all the users are a quarter of an hour in the direct vicinity of the device.
Technically, however, the two Apps have two different philosophies. While in France, all the contacts are stored on a Central Server, this happens in Germany on the Smartphone of the owner. This decentralized functioning require the manufacturer, Google and Apple, and is also the preferred option of most of the privacy advocates. On the App Server, then only anonymous IDs from the Corona are deposited positively Tested, with each Smartphone itself can be used to calculate whether there has been this ID of a relevant long-term contact.
infection message only to the nation-state
Now major tourist track, with Austria and Switzerland-the concept of Apple and Google castles. Thus it may be technically possible, that mobile phones with a German App to register the IDs of foreign Apps with distributed storage on their devices. Currently but all the systems fail to make sick messages across countries, known, reported the Viennese IT-security researcher Christian Kudera in the DW-Interview. Nevertheless, the first Teams work on concepts of how this matter can be resolved.
The current issue of the sick is a fictitious example: A guest at a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps, is tested upon his return to Germany, a positive effect on the Corona. The infection is immediately documented on the German App-Server. The App of the service on the mountain hut in Switzerland, the guest has to entertain a half-hour on a short distance, was able to save possibly the ID of the Germans. Furthermore, since the App picks up but no connection to the German Server, or an exchange of IDs between the servers takes place, the operation in the subsequent period, none of their relevant contact to a Corona-Positive.
App’s reach as a new frontier in Europe
For a future cross-country function of the exchange of information between the national, the App needs to be regulated servers. In addition, the Smartphone would have to notify owners of its App, when he is abroad. “Of course it would be the Easiest to do this via the satellite positioning, GPS or Roaming automated. However, we know from the debates of the past months, the privacy concerns when location data are particularly large”, so IT researchers Kudera of SBA Research. Alternatively, a programmer could incorporate a function that allows the user to inform the App manually via the stay abroad.
The synchronization of data between servers is also politically controversial. The acceptance of App in the population might decrease when a country opens its servers for access from abroad.
the EU Commission makes pressure
The European Union notes with concern that, in the crisis, the EU member States pursue different concepts. When contact-Tracing is to guarantee the interoperability is “of crucial importance,” explains a spokesperson for the EU Commission. Accordingly, the EU advertises for weeks for cross-country functions. A legal recourse to this interoperability will prevail, not, the spokesperson did, however.
Should not be implemented in the transnational Tracing via the App, brings the EU early warning and response system (EWRS) for further contact tracing into the game – and ultimately, the traditional exchange between the health authorities of the member States.
on The question of the transnational Tracings are also available from the App developers with no positive news. Neither SAP nor the Deutsche Telekom wanted to respond to this question compared to the DW. In view of the technical data is excluded that the German App has a cross-country functionality, when it is expected to be published in mid-June.
debate over the effectiveness of the App
IT security expert Christian Kudera still refers to a different aspect. With the current low infection rates is not scientifically examine, whether the contact tracing App is an effective way of pandemic control.
A Team of researchers at the University of Oxford, in a model calculation that more than half of the population Tracing would have to use the Apps, so that they could influence the infection happened. Such a high value still, not a single EU state reached so far, but. From the worldwide practice, there are also sobering Numbers. In Australia, the App can warn in more than a month, only a Infected – the the authorities already known contacts.
author: Andreas Noll “You’re a bastard!”: Passers-by to berate anglers to giant fishing bad FOCUS Online/Wochit “You’re a bastard!”: Passers-by to berate anglers to giant-fishing evil
*The contribution of “Closed borders for Corona Apps in Europe,” published by Deutsche Welle. Contact with the executives here.
Deutsche Welle
