The Corona warning app has not only been heavily criticized since breakdowns. Too few people use it to be of any use. There is also no international exchange with other apps.
- The Corona warning app has come under fire. It is not effective enough, probably mainly because too few people use it.
- There were glitches with the app: It is said to have only been available to millions of users in Germany over a period of weeks.
- Nevertheless, the EU wants to commission the developers of the German app for a cross-border solution.
- Here you will find the basic facts about the coronavirus * and a map with the current number of cases in Germany. as well as the current corona situation in Germany.
Update from August 25, 2020, 8:30 p.m.: Munich - The Federal Government's Corona app is intended to warn of the risk of infection in everyday life. Anyone who was closer than two meters to an infected person for more than 15 minutes will be advised of their increased risk. Provided that both use the app at all. It is true that German citizens have already downloaded it 17.5 million times. But according to experts, this number - which cannot be equated with the number of users - is still too low.
"In order for the Corona warning app to really bring something, the number of downloads should double," said Gert Wagner, member of the Advisory Council for Consumer Questions, of "Welt am Sonntag". Markus Söder, head of the ruling party CSU, has not been very convinced either. “The Corona warning app is not yet a great success,” he told the “Spiegel” on Monday. One problem is that many people use an old cell phone that doesn't run the app.
Manuel Höferlin (FDP) also shares this point of criticism. The chairman of the digital committee in the Bundestag considers the Corona app to be generally successful. But with total costs of up to over 60 million euros , it is "simply too expensive to leave potential untapped," Höferlin told the Münchner Merkur. The federal government must finally influence manufacturers like Apple to run the app on older devices. At the moment, use is only possible from the Apple model I-Phone 6s, but technically it is already possible from the older I-Phone 4s.
Höferlin sees other screws that have to be turned. The fact that you have to be at least 17 years old to download the app is evidence of “incredibly poor planning” in view of the risk of infection in schools. The fact that there is no data exchange with apps from other countries - although technically possible in many cases - is “incomprehensible”. The most serious mistake, however, lies in the communication of the federal government. The Corona app was repeatedly mixed up in public display with other programs - such as the data donation app. In addition, errors in the initial phase were not communicated openly. “You can't build trust like that,” says Höferlin.
Jens Spahn's Federal Ministry of Health (CDU) emphasized at the request of Münchner Merkurs that the app was "one component of several" in the fight against Corona. "Every warning given by the Corona-Warn-App can help to interrupt chains of infection more quickly and curb the spread of Sars-Cov-2." Thus, every individual who uses the app also contributes to fighting the pandemic. The logical conclusion: "From the perspective of the federal government, there is no minimum success limit."
But, of course, records are still kept: In addition to 17.5 million downloads, more than 210,000 test results (including negative ones) have been “transmitted digitally and more than 1800 teleTans have been issued to verify a positive test result,” writes the ministry. At the same time, the application receives "very positive feedback from users in the app stores". And on the developers' publicly accessible platforms, there is “a constructive exchange of ideas about how the app can be improved even further”. - Sebastian Horsch
A corona test carried out for a returnee is shown as negative on the display of an iphone in the corona warning app. Travelers from risk areas must be tested on their return.
© Michael Kappeler / dpa
Corona app: After massive problems - EU approaches developers
Update from July 31, 12:02 p.m.: The German Corona warning app recently had to struggle with massive problems . Messages were apparently not played out for weeks, affecting millions of users. The federal government is still behind the software. The technical deficiencies have now also been eliminated, assured Health Minister Jens Spahn in a joint statement with the developers (see update from July 26th, 12.07 p.m.).
A European Union commission approached the developers . The German Telekom and SAP are apparently working on a Europe-wide warning platform. A possibility to network the Corona apps of different countries is to be created. A Telekom spokesman for the German press agency announced that the deal was “about to be concluded”.
A cross-border warning option is an important issue for the EU, especially when traveling. Initially, however, this will only be possible through cooperation between the countries that rely on a similarly decentralized solution as Germany . There are the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark among others. Software controlled in any other way would make data protection measures more difficult.
Corona app: Jens Spahn admits massive errors - joint declaration by the government and developers
Update from July 26, 10:25 p.m.: For weeks, the federal government's corona warning app is said to have only been available to a limited extent for millions of users. A technical error apparently meant that warning messages were only displayed very late. Developers SAP and Telekom want to get the problem under control with an update .
"We want to convince more people of the app," it is now called in a joint statement by the government and developers , which also Health Minister Jens Spahn had signed, "everyone who uses them makes a difference." More than 16 million citizens have the software has already been downloaded to your smartphone. Once again, the federal government thanks you for your trust and assures you that the app works well.
At the same time, the massive errors in the declaration are also admitted. " The application of the app did not run without restrictions on all mobile phones ", but the incorrect update of the data has now been repaired. In the future, the development team wants to inform about unforeseen problems and possible restrictions .
Corona app gets update after massive errors - Health Minister Spahn is silent
Update from July 25, 2020, 8:20 p.m.: The developers of the German Corona Warning app have released a new version of the application that eliminates the technical problems on Apple's iPhone . The software company SAP and Deutsche Telekom announced this on Saturday evening. On the Apple iOS operating system , the warning app had constantly exchanged anonymous codes with other users as promised, but the warning of dangerous encounters did not occur in the background, but only when the app was actively open.
Similar problems appeared with certain Android smartphones . The cause was an energy-saving mode that deviated from the Android standard, which could have severely restricted or even deactivated the background update on some devices .
According to the two companies, the Apple operating system iOS on the iPhone did not always update the background regularly. The development team found a way on Saturday to bypass the operating system-related restrictions until Apple had solved the system problem itself, the statement said. To do this, users need to update to version 1.1.2. make. To fully activate the update, users would then have to call up the app once. "This also applies if a smartphone has been switched off for a long time." An update of the Corona warning app from the Robert Koch Institute has been available for Android users for several days.
Corona app has not worked properly for millions of users for weeks - Health Minister Spahn is silent
Update from July 25, 2020: The German Foundation for Patient Protection has asked Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) to clarify what is true of the allegations about the problems with the Corona warning app . The app is an important component in keeping the corona virus in check, explained board member Eugen Brysch to the German press agency on Saturday. “Now the contact check is only supposed to function incompletely on more and more smartphones. That worries the more than 15 million users. ”And further:“ The Federal Minister of Health ensures maximum irritation. His silence cannot be accepted. ”Trust in the correct function is the key to the success of the Corona warning app.
Corona app with massive breakdown: Apparently much larger than assumed and not yet resolved - iPhones also affected
Update from July 24th, 10.45 p.m.: Apparently the problems of the Corona warning app are bigger than previously assumed. According to research by tagesschau.de, the coronavirus alarm system is also said to have difficulties on iPhones. Accordingly, the contact check only works incompletely on many iPhones . Users were sometimes not informed via the app for weeks whether they had contact with infected people or not.
According to the report, SAP , which developed the app together with Deutsche Telekom , admitted the error. "There are problems there, and I very much hope that they will either be eliminated very, very quickly or that we will find an effective workaround (...) to still get the functionality up and running," the software architect of the Corona warning app at SAP, Thomas Klingbeil , quoted.
As with some Android devices, the background update should also be responsible for iPhones. The Corona warning app must continue to run in the background and update data even if it is not open. If there was an encounter with a person who then tested positive for the corona virus, the cell phone is actually supposed to actively notify the owner of the increased risk. If the update is switched off in the background, there is no warning. “The problem we have is that the background update is apparently not called up by the operating system,” said Klingbeil.
Corona app with massive breakdown: Spahn is now being criticized - "I expect ..."
Update from July 24th, 11:04 a.m.: The digital policy spokesman for the SPD, Jens Zimmermann, calls for comprehensive answers from the Ministry of Health after a report by Bild about a glitch when using the Corona warning app . "I expect Minister Spahn to clarify this quickly," said Zimmermann to the Handelsblatt .
According to the Ministry of Health , the problem has been known for a long time and is also a topic in the questions and answers (FAQ) of the app. Nevertheless, the ministry emphasized that the app worked “at all times”. However, certain Android devices would have prevented the apps from running permanently in the background. "This does not only apply to the Corona warning app, but to all apps on these smartphones," the authority said.
Jens Spahn: Despite some difficulties, the Federal Minister of Health is behind the German Corona warning app - it has apparently also convinced EU politicians.
© Tobias Schwarz / AFP Pool / dpa
Corona warning app: SPD politician Zimmermann criticizes a lack of transparency after a breakdown
SPD politician Zimmermann criticized what he saw as the poor communication of the Federal Ministry of Health. “It is more than annoying that the responsible politicians find out about this matter from the media. I would have liked open communication from the Ministry of Health, ”he said. Meanwhile, two former heads of the Social Democrats get read the riot act in a condolence expression.
First report from July 23rd: Berlin - It should bring security - and make life easier despite the coronavirus pandemic : the Corona warning app. But apparently the Coronavirus * warning app has not worked properly for millions of users for weeks. The reported Bild.de . According to this, the warning is said to have been prevented due to a technical setting or was only played out to app owners much later.
The reason is apparently due to poor interaction between Android devices and the app. The Corona * app should collect contact data via Bluetooth and, in the event of a positive coronavirus test *, warn potentially affected contacts of the infected person. But apparently the alarm was not played in time on many Android devices. "There was indeed a problem with previous versions of the Corona warning app in terms of background updates on Android devices," a SAP spokesman confirmed to the image.
Corona app: Breakdown with millions of users - warnings were not played out for weeks
Accordingly, owners of Samsung or Huawei devices were affected . Since the app was launched five weeks ago, the tool has not been fully usable by them. The problem: In order to save energy, the Android operating system automatically switches off the background update of apps when the user closes them. Accordingly, the urgent warnings about a possible coronavirus * infection were not displayed.
Users would have had to actively set the background update in order to receive the corona alarm as planned. "With version 1.1.1 the problem is fixed," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health of the picture . The new version has been available since Wednesday, July 22nd. Accordingly, the problem of the Corona warning app was known - but this has not yet been communicated to the public.
Coronavirus in Germany: Embarrassing glitch with the Spahn app
Professor Hannes Federrath, President of the Society for Computer Science, calls the situation a “very annoying mistake”. But first and foremost, smartphone manufacturers have an obligation. That could be "dangerous for the health" of consumers, according to Federrath.
The Robert Koch Institute has also confirmed the bug. "The automatic synchronization in the background was prevented by some Android smartphones," said a spokesman. The Corona app is intended to help track and interrupt chains of infection. It can also help people to receive their test results digitally as quickly as possible after a coronavirus test and anonymously warn possible contact persons via the app if they have also installed the app.
The Corona app was downloaded by millions of Germans within a very short time. When around 6.5 million users were recorded in May, Health Minister Jens Spahn said: "These are well over six million reasons why the coronavirus will have fewer opportunities in the future." The German government advertises on its website under the slogan "Support us in the fight." against Corona ”for the installation. Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for the Corona app to be used. (nai) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital network
Video: The German Corona Warning App
List of rubric lists: © Michael Kappeler / dpa
