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Corona app in several weeks? Spahn: "So that it's really good ..."

2020-04-17T06:37:25.957Z


Politicians around the world go to great lengths to master the spread of the coronavirus. In Germany wrestling over the surveillance of the cell phone data.


Politicians around the world go to great lengths to master the spread of the coronavirus. In Germany wrestling over the surveillance of the cell phone data.

  • With the coronavirus * raging worldwide , governments are resorting to more than curfews or restrictions .
  • In several countries, the movement profiles of citizens are monitored using cell phone data .
  • Germany is warned of such a step.
  • Here you will find the basic facts about the corona virus and the corona news from Germany. You can also find current case numbers in Germany as a map. The following recommendations for corona protective measures are currently available.

Update from April 17: According to the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn  , it will take several weeks before the planned mobile app can be used to contain the corona virus in Germany  . "This is being developed at high pressure," said the CDU politician on Friday in the ARD "Morgenmagazin". "But the truth is also: For it to be really good, it takes three to four weeks rather than two weeks."

Spahn emphasized: “The point is that we have to be as perfect as possible when it comes to data security, data protection and the underlying concept. That has to meet the requirements that we otherwise place on such a technology. ”

Such an app has been under discussion for weeks. It is about quickly informing people when they have had contact with infected people. Use should be voluntary. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that the app is currently being tested by the Robert Koch Institute .

"It is very important that if someone has tested positive for Corona, we can quickly follow up contacts over the past few days, be able to inform and also ask to be able to stay at home," said Spahn. “At the moment, this has to be done manually, by phone, by visiting the health authorities. And of course, such an app could make things a lot easier. ”

Discussion about Corona app: JU boss Kuban for contradiction solution - should be installed automatically

Update from April 12:  The chairman of the Junge Union (JU),  Tilman Kuban , has  spoken out in favor of a  contradiction solution  for the planned  Corona app . The app for tracking coronavirus infections should be automatically installed on every mobile phone for every German if this does not contradict actively, Kuban told the "Welt am Sonntag". "The Corona app is not going to be the new vaccine, but it can help us get back to our normal life faster while keeping the number of infections as low as possible."

The CDU politician assumes that 40 to 50 million people in Germany would have to participate and use this app. "That is why I am in favor of a contradiction solution for data donation. Every smartphone owner should get the new tracing app with the next update on their cell phone and decide completely anonymously whether they want to participate and help or contradict for understandable reasons," said Kuban.

The Green politician Konstantin von Notz rejected this proposal. "The encroachment on the informational self-determination and the integrity of the information technology systems of the citizens would undoubtedly be different - and the great, also legal advantage of a clean opt-in solution, namely the self-determined consent,", said von Notz the "world On Sunday". An app will only be successful if it is transparent and voluntary.

Discussion about the Corona app: Jens Spahn ties application to a condition

Update from April 9: There is currently a lot of discussion about a so-called corona app , which is intended to slow down the rapid spread of the corona virus. On Thursday evening, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) voted for such a possibility and said in the ARD extra: " The app is a key ." 

Because the virus is so highly infectious, “people have to be isolated if they are infected. But we also have to be able to understand the contacts of the past few days so that the dynamic of infection can be ended. "The decisive advantage of a Corona app is that" the faster the contacts are found, the better the spread can be prevented. "

In conclusion, the Minister of Health linked the successful use of the app to one condition: "It is important that many people use this app voluntarily."

Update from April 8th: By the end of the Easter holidays in Germany , a specific app to contain the corona virus is apparently to be available. This was announced by Chris Boos, one of the leading researchers in the PEPP-PT project. "I assume that we will actually have the first app live between April 15th and 19th," said the IT entrepreneur, who sits on the German government's digital council. The concept had been developed by 130 experts from eight European countries in the past few weeks and had been tested by Bundeswehr soldiers in Berlin.

Smartphone app against corona virus: no tracking, everything voluntarily

Boos emphasized that so far there is no ready-made tracking app, but an open technical concept that pursues three goals. On the one hand, the system must enable a clean measurement. "We don't want to compare apples to pears." The second goal is to ensure privacy. "We do not use any location data or any data that can identify a person." In doing so, they rely on complete anonymization and pure voluntariness. The third point is interoperability between countries. "We then have a kind of roaming so that you can really open the borders again and still be able to track infection chains in an informed manner."

Boos emphasized that it was a political decision to bring the application to the app stores. He personally sees the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as a "natural source for an app in Germany". The RKI had already published its first Corona app on Tuesday, with which citizens can donate health data from fitness trackers and smartwatches, with which scientists want to draw conclusions about the spread of the virus. The RKI was also involved in the PEPP-PT project from the beginning. 

How is the Corona crisis going on in Germany? Jens Spahn and the RKI are giving a corona update on Thursday. *

Ethics Council for Mobile Apps in the Fight Against Corona Virus: "Use Everything That Can Help Us"

Update from April 7th: It now seems clear: Last but not least , apps developed in-house are intended to help combat the corona epidemic in Germany . The German Ethics Council also welcomed such ideas on Tuesday . It makes sense "to use everything that can help us," said ethics council member and lawyer Steffen Augsberg in Berlin. It was "not on the way to the surveillance state". Augsberg and the chairman of the council, Peter Dabrock, also emphasized that data protection and voluntary action were required .

Meanwhile, the Robert Koch Institute went public with another plan: Institute head Lothar Wieler presented a slightly different new app. “data donation” with the help of tracking devices should help the scientists to identify areas that are particularly at risk. However, the reactions are split, as reported , among others, by zeitzeitung.de *.

Mobile phone app in the fight against coronavirus: tests are running in Berlin 

Update April 6: Germany is planning a new mobile phone - app against the coronavirus to proceed. With this, the infection routes should be recognized. According to Chancellor-in-Office Helge Braun, the app will be ready for use very soon - in the coming days or weeks at the latest. Braun said to RTL and ntv .

The tracking app plays a crucial role in getting out of current corona measures, such as the ban on contacts, Braun continues. In order for the app to be effective, however, Europe-wide use of the new technology is required. This is due solely to the European internal market and the numerous commuters who crossed the border every day. "The worst thing that can happen to us is that there are now many different tracking apps," said Braun

The technology for tracking corona infection chains is currently being tested in Berlin by soldiers in the Julius Leber barracks. It is an app that citizens could voluntarily install and that anonymously warns them without giving names or location data if they have had contact with a confirmed infected person.

Read also:  Virologist Kekulé estimates the corona dark figure in Germany - if it is true, it would be worrying

Corona app as a solution in shutdown? Poll shows a new problem

News from April 5th:

Update 8:20 pm:  How does Germany come out of the shutdown ? Part of the hope rests on digital solutions like a “ Corona app ”. However, according to a survey, Germans are divided about the introduction of such a solution. 

About 47 percent of all eligible voters would be willing to install and use such an app on their smartphones, according to a Infratest Dimap survey published on Thursday for the ARD “Germany trend”. However, around 45 percent of those surveyed would not use such an app. As the main reasons for rejecting the new technology, 41 percent of respondents cited data protection, fear of surveillance or interference with personal rights . Others consider such a measure to be useless or technically too difficult.

A clear majority of 93 percent of Germans, on the other hand, continue to support the existing contact restrictions to curb the corona pandemic. Only six percent of those surveyed stated that they refused to restrict themselves to their own household or to another person outside the household. This means that approval for the measure fell only slightly by two percentage points compared to the previous week. 

Austria already has it, the obligation to wear a mask. But does it also come in Germany? *

Is the Corona app coming? Doubts about the actions of some federal states

Update 1:19 p.m .: There is still no functional app with which coronavirus patients can be tracked better, the government spokesman said on Wednesday in the federal press conference . The government spokesman did not want to comment on country-specific measures that are currently being used. 

Specifically: The health authorities in Baden-Württemberg  and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania are currently being  asked to forward the data of infected people to the police. In principle, this procedure contradicts doctor confidentiality and any legislation against stigma - but is currently justified by the emergency legislation surrounding the corona pandemic.

From a constitutional point of  view, however, this procedure would still have to be examined. 

Turkey has particular problems with the corona virus: the virus spreads almost unchecked. *

Corona virus app: Federal government is now addressing the Corona app in concrete terms

Update from April 1, 11:36 am:  The  federal government  is now tackling the controversial control via cell phone monitoring. In the Julius Leber barracks in Berlin, around 50 soldiers are taking part in a test of the Fraunhofer Institute's application for tracking possible corona infections. 

"The calibration process consists of several phases, in which there are initially two people in a certain, defined area," said the Bundeswehr . "The number of people is gradually increased over time and then gradually reduced again after reaching a defined target size."

The soldiers must be at certain points as test subjects, for a certain period of time, or move to another point. The test cycles take place on the barracks in buildings and outdoors. "It goes without saying that the safety and health of the participants is of the utmost importance and everyone is provided with the necessary protective equipment," it said. According to dpa information, the Robert Koch Institute is also involved in the development of the technology .

Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) originally planned to allow the health authorities in an "epidemic situation of national scope" to determine contact persons for sick people using cell phone location data. After fierce criticism from the opposition, but also from the SPD, Spahn initially postponed these plans.

However , political support from all parties represented in the Bundestag is available for an app that citizens could install voluntarily and that anonymously warns them anonymously without disclosing names or location data if they have had contact with a confirmed infected person . The Federal Data Protection Officer Ulrich Kelber (SPD) also thinks this is a viable option.

Corona virus app: is monitoring coming? Expert Kekulé warns of ""

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Virologist Alexander Kekulé on Tuesday on ZDF.

© ZDF / screenshot

Original article from March 31, 2020:

Munich - In the fight against the containment of the corona virus , which has killed over 600 people across Germany *, politicians are taking measures that seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago. After the pronounced exit restrictions or contact bans *, another invasion of privacy could soon follow: The discussion about the surveillance of cell phone data has flared up in this country. Austria, Poland or Israel are already using it, the Czech Republic is testing the possibility.

With this means, the authorities hope to be able to create movement profiles . Primarily from infected people. But as a consequence, of course, also of demonstrably healthy citizens, because they could end up being unwittingly endangered due to the proximity to the sick *. The question arises: is the benefit of this type of surveillance so great that it justifies such cuts in private life?

Coronavirus: Virologist Kekulé criticizes plans to monitor cell phone data

That will only be possible to answer with increasing time. Alexander Kekulé is the decisive opponent of such control by the state . In his “MDR” podcast “Kekulés Corona Compass”, the renowned virologist , who has been a welcome guest on talk shows on the subject of corona for weeks, criticizes the fact that consent from the population is virtually required : “I don't like this at all.”

In addition, he had "considerable concerns" whether cell phone surveillance is necessary. Experts were equally critical of the initial restrictions, which were then imposed. For him, the implementation of the surveillance would be equivalent to "a kind of mobile phone police " that would control whether people really stayed at home - as in Italy, which was much more severely affected. A terrifying scenario , because leaving your own property is finally allowed for good reasons and, apart from all the dangers, is also recommended.

Coronavirus: Infected people should remember contacts from previous days

Kekulé envisions another way of breaking the chain of infection . It should be possible to find out who a person infected could have been infected in the past few days due to the limited contacts. "I mean that someone, in this situation in which we are in Germany, who  suddenly gets corona symptoms and is also tested positively, remembers who he met the last two or three days has, ”emphasizes the Munich-born, who practices in Halle an der Saale.

This is likely to be difficult if you visit the supermarket . After all, who can claim to know all the customers around them by name? It simply cannot be avoided that the distance to other people in the rows of shelves falls below the prescribed distance of one and a half or two meters . And even with jogging rounds, bike tours or walks there can be involuntary and currently not recommended physical proximity to unknown citizens - if only for seconds.

Coronavirus: Kekulé sees great damage from many suspects through cell phone tracking

However, Kekulé is against a general suspicion that would apply to all potential contacts of a sick person. If the memory is helped with the help of so-called cell phone tracking , “you do a lot more damage, because of course a lot of people suddenly appear in the room as suspects ”. Because not everyone who is close to a sick person is automatically at risk of corona *. Therefore, monitoring the cell phone data is  "crazy" and cannot really benefit the health service. Rather, a  "pseudo-security" is created.

At the same time, however, uncertainty threatens to spread across the country: “The worst thing that can happen in such a situation is that the population is unsettled . Or has the feeling that we are now being covered up with some kind of eavesdropping . ”Nobody could say seriously what would happen to the data obtained. Which in turn could lead to a loss of trust . And politicians cannot use this at all in view of the challenges that still lie ahead.

Coronavirus: Ministry of Health hopes for anonymous app

Who would know that better than Jens Spahn , who is currently at the forefront of the Corona crossfire and has to cope with various sources of fire? The Federal Ministry of Health does not want to evaluate and trace the cell phone data nationwide, the agency of the CDU politician appeased. Rather, it should be possible to anonymously inform people with an app  that there has been contact with infected people in the past two weeks. Such an application would only have to be developed.

The Rhineland-Palatinate data protection officer Dieter Kugelmann in discussion with the Palatinate Merkur considers such a strategy to be compatible with data protection. Prerequisite: Users of the app can voluntarily provide their data and revoke it at any time. Furthermore, the purpose of the use of cell phone data must be clearly defined and its transmission must be secure . Finally, all information obtained should be deleted after the quarantine period of 14 days. Kugelmann warns: "We must not give up freedoms prematurely if it does not serve effective health protection at all."

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Is facing incomparable challenges: Health Minister Jens Spahn is fighting against the spread of the corona virus.

© AFP / INA FASSBENDER

Coronavirus: South Korea successful with voluntary use of mobile phone data - Poland takes action

South Korea could serve as a model , where the number of new infections is falling back significantly. Cell phone data is collected on a voluntary basis in the Asian state . Poland, on the other hand, is already using such localization apps for infected people: In order to check whether the person concerned remains in quarantine at their place, the app prompts them to take a selfie several times a day , which takes a first picture of that Quarantine location matches. If the infected person does not comply, the police will visit him, and there are also fines.

Such a tight form of surveillance seems unthinkable in Germany, even if the Ministry of Health warned in a worst-case scenario that millions of people were killed in the pandemic. But there is a risk in every country whose government successfully requests access to cell phone data in the corona crisis . "The problem with introducing surveillance in an emergency situation is that it could get people used to it," warns US researcher Ryan Calo, who speaks of a difficult balancing act.

The legal expert is not alone in this. Darrell West, director of the Brookings Institution's Technological Innovation Center at the US think tank, is concerned that "these tools will return to normal and continue to be used as the pandemic slows down."

In Bavaria, Health Minister Huml comes under pressure - Söder demands more speed and sends his lawyers *. 

* Merkur.de and Kreiszeitung.de are part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.

mg

List of rubric lists: © dpa / Carsten Koall

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-04-17

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