Corona pandemic: France launches tracing app

“StopCovid” is said to be more flexible than the German version, but there are great concerns about data protection.

• The French parliament has  approved the " StopCovid" tracing app
• The app is intended to inform users when there are Corona infected people in their area
• Privacyists around the world are concerned *

The two French Houses of Parliament gave the go-ahead for Operation StopCovid last Thursday . This is the name of the tracing app developed by French institutes and companies; the German Fraunhofer Institute was also involved. However, a pan-European approach failed due to the different ideas: Germany, for example, takes a decentralized approach in which the data is only saved on the respective smartphone.

Not surprisingly, France preferred a system with a central server. It can be continuously developed by the epidemiologists and stored data "to train the warning algorithm", as the German digital magazine "t3n" states.

France uses the "StopCovid" tracing app

However, central recording poses a fundamental rights problem: Who guarantees that the data will not fall into the hands of state security, as is most likely the case in China? * The French Interior Minister, Christoph Castaner, had declared such a warning app at the end of March be "not in our culture". Two months later, the discourse has changed completely, which makes data protection all the more skeptical.

I just don't believe centralizing all of the country's contacts in one database, and then sharing it, is a good idea. And as this is managed by people who don't seem to understand that very well, or are not very honest, this worries me even more.

Opposition politicians such as the left Jean-Luc Mélenchon describe the StopCovid app as "freedom -robbing ". Right-wing populist Marine Le Pen accuses President Emmanuel Macron's government of launching the StopCovid "gadget" only to distract him from the fact that he failed miserably in obtaining Covid tests and protective masks. Digital minister Cédric O, on the other hand, believes that this app can "save the sick and dead".

Warning of corona infected: This is how the "StopCovid" app should work in France

In the National Assembly, 338 MPs voted for the app , with 215 votes against and 21 abstentions. In the Senate, the application was approved with 186 votes, there were 127 against and 29 abstentions.

In practice, it works like this: A person infected with covid who has been recognized and confirmed as such by a doctor loads the StopCovid app onto their cell phone. Anyone who has the same app and stays closer than a meter for a quarter of an hour is warned by a Bluetooth signal on their own smartphone. This happens completely anonymously, that is, without knowing who the alarm is from.

France: Corona warning app controversial among data protection experts

The prerequisite is that both people have downloaded the app , switched on their smartphone and are also connected via Bluetooth. Participation is also voluntary for those infected; there is no location localization.

A typical application is a train journey or a flight. Critical virologists have calculated, however, that in the current phase-out phase, even in a densely populated local train, on average only one person would be carrying the virus. One app per train journey is sufficient, the app's supporters argue . However, 23 percent of the French have no smartphone at all. And especially in a country where there has already been aggression against people infected with Covid 19 , it is uncertain whether the latter are willing to send out an app signal. If they are not in quarantine and are still taking the train at all.

Corona app launches in France - concern for privacy

They also have to trust central government data protection , which is by no means a given in France . Even tech companies like Apple are by no means beyond any doubt, especially since they shy away from cooperating with the French app creators. In Paris, many think of the chilling example of the consulting firm Cambridge Analytika, who misused personal Facebook data for the Pro-Brexit campaign.

France's digital minister Cédric O, on the other hand, refers to an opinion poll according to which 62 percent of the French are willing to download the StopCovid app . With a participation of more than 60 percent, the app can make sense according to experts. It is planned that travelers from outside France and cross-border commuters can also download the app . 

By Stefan Brändle (with afp)

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen Digital Network