Coronavirus: digital tracing, the conscience of the majority

Use digital tracing to fight the spread of Covid-19 at the time of confinement, and even more when it comes to getting out? The question, mixing public freedoms and health issues, is philosophical. And politically explosive. Including within the majority who could fracture. LREM number two, Pierre Person, even going so far as to advance during the Executive Bureau that he could question his membership of Emmanuel Macron's party if such a measure were taken. “The subject is pushed by Cédric O (Editor's note: the Secretary of State for Digital) . The door is wide open, "warns one pillar of macronie, when another depicts an executive walking on eggs:" They are extremely careful. They know they are on very moving ground. "

According to "Le Figaro", Cédric O, who would prefer an application listing data via Bluetooth and guaranteeing anonymity over GPS tracking, could present the government's position on Wednesday. "We must explore all the open doors, lots of technology can prove useful," we advance to Matignon, while promising: "We will be very careful with public freedoms, it is not a question of creating a Big Brother." . "If Edouard Philippe excluded any" compulsory "tracing, last week, he left the door open in the case of" a voluntary commitment "

On the left wing of the majority, some are already stepping in to warn against "an absolutely major danger". “The French have agreed to give up a lot of freedoms with confinement, but the same rules apply to everyone. Tracking , whether voluntary or not, individualizes a restriction of freedom. And that is not acceptable, ”argues MP LREM Guillaume Chiche. His colleague Sacha Houlié abounds: “This immaterial way of monitoring everyone and having a collective superego that is observed, is embarrassing. The impatience with which we want to get out of confinement cannot lead us to accept anything. "

"We have to get to the bottom of things"

In tune with the position put forward by the Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner on Sunday evening on France 2, Mounir Mahjoubi believes that it is worth examining the possible solutions. "Between the two extremes, which consist in saying: We must not use any of these technologies in the name of individual freedoms or To save lives we can use everything whatever the consequences , there is an infinite field", argues the former Secretary of State for Digital.

To "feed this debate", the deputy LREM of Paris wrote a note of 35 pages, unveiled on our site, for the deputies, and the secretary of state for digital. Where are listed, the various uses of digital tracing abroad, which range from location, to sending SMS to ensure that citizens are well confined to their home, through more intrusive techniques establishing the list of all the people with whom a patient could have come into contact.

The subject is so "sensitive", that the LREM president of the Law Commission, Yaël Braun-Pivet, will hear this Tuesday the president of the Cnil (National Commission on Information Technology and Liberties), Marie-Laure Denis, and the epidemiologist, Simon Cauchemez, then Cédric O, this Thursday. "House arresting by checking your cell phone details is not the same as looking anonymously if you run into someone positive. We have to get to the bottom of things, ”she argues. And to pose the stake: “Whatever the circumstances, our guide must always remain respect for the rule of law. The question that arises is that of the balance between our freedoms and health requirements. What world do we want to live in? "