StopCovid: "Be careful not to trivialize this type of data collection"

For Romain Perray, 42, a lawyer specializing in digital issues, data protection and cybersecurity, also a lecturer in the Parisian universities of Paris I, Paris II and Paris V, the StopCovid application offers strong security guarantees. But it should not become a base for the trivialization of the collection and processing of personal medical data.

Should we fear for his personal data by installing this application?

ROMAIN PERRAY. If StopCovid has sparked so many debates in recent weeks, notably legal ones, it is primarily because it deals with medical data, a sensitive and highly regulated issue in France since the Data Protection Act. What worries the French is the combination of data collection on a single server controlled by the public authorities and then the cross processing of these same data. This is an understandable concern but the technical risks remain, in my opinion, low.

What makes you trust him rather?

The double pseudonym system, a first when you register, then a second, temporary and automatically changed every day, is a very strong first guarantee of privacy protection. The second is the choice, both political and technical, of collecting data on a single server. This makes it easier to ensure the computer security of the system and its control. When we use the services of Facebook, Apple or Google, the data that we entrust to them is stored on different servers, then shared, cross-checked and analyzed with each other via their different services. This does not prevent the problems as evidenced by the latest massive cybercrime case and the personal and bank data hacked a few days ago from 9 million customers of the airline EasyJet.

Why then are there strong oppositions, like those of organizations like the League for Human Rights?

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I understand them because they point to a serious problem: that of the possible trivialization of this type of device that should not be reproduced without public debate. In the context of health crisis and emergency, the usefulness of StopCovid was not raised but it will be necessary to pose a legal debate, as did the Cnil (National Commission of data processing and freedoms) in its opinion, on the usefulness for the public interest of a similar system which could emerge in the future.