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Queue in front of a British restaurant in February 2021: As soon as the catering industry offers more than just to-go, QR codes have to be displayed
Photo: Gareth Fuller / dpa
At the same time as the current UK Corona warning app was launched, posters with QR codes appeared across the country last September.
The pixel images were hung in pubs, restaurants, museums, bookhouses, hotels and hairdressers.
For example, anyone who entered one of the bars that was still open at the time scanned the QR code at the entrance with the official British warning app and had thus registered anonymously at the location using the “check-in” function of the app and was later checked via warned of possible risk contacts.
"When I visited a restaurant shortly after the app was introduced, a lot of people out in the queue downloaded the app," recalls Lucie Abeler-Dörner.
At the Big Data Institute at Oxford University in the UK, she is researching how tracing apps can help contain the corona pandemic.
"Suddenly the QR codes were everywhere: in restaurants, in museums, on the adventure playground or on my nine-year-old son's soccer field," says Abeler-Dörner.
The fact that the check-in function was integrated into the British government warning app "NHS Covid-19" from the start makes epidemiological sense in her opinion for several reasons.
First of all, there is an important »psychological function, because users can actively do something with the app.« That contributed enormously to the rapid spread of the app.
This in turn helps prevent infections, according to a study by the University of Oxford, in which Abeler-Dörner was involved.
According to the study, every additional percent of users can reduce the number of corona infections by 0.8 percent to 2.3 percent.
In fact, the "NHS Covid-19" app, which can be used in England and Wales, was available for download late compared to other tracing apps, but it has now been downloaded almost 22 million times.
In terms of the entire population, this is a higher download rate than in Germany.
The warnings after a check-in work very similarly to other contact tracing: If, for example, another guest later tested positive in a restaurant they visited and shared the test result with the app, all other restaurant visitors would automatically be alerted about the risk encounter.
In England and Wales, almost 800,000 posters with QR codes have been hung in places to date and the app has so far sent 272 warnings about possible risk contacts after check-ins, according to the British Ministry of Health on its website.
Data misuse is made more difficult
Lucie Abeler-Dörner sees two further advantages in the check-in function: "Firstly, clusters and superspreading events can be identified more easily, and secondly, there are advantages for data protection when the paperwork is minimized." As had to be done in Germany Restaurant guests in England usually left their names and contact details on a piece of paper, which could easily have led to misuse because data such as the telephone number or email address were viewed by third parties.
According to SPIEGEL information, the state data protection officers in Germany recorded more than 730 data protection complaints in the time when the gastronomy was open in summer and autumn.
This includes, for example, unwanted attempts at flirting on WhatsApp.
All of this is no longer possible with a check-in via the QR code, because no personal data has to be entered.
"It is worth integrating a check-in function into the app for each of these effects," says Abeler-Dörner, summarizing the advantages of the British solution.
The Federal Ministry of Health also seems to have recognized this and confirms that there should also be a check-in function for restaurants, for example, in the Corona warning app.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health told SPIEGEL that this should be available after an update that will come "shortly after Easter".
Technically, the check-in should work like in the British app and as it is already the case with regular tracing in the German app, the spokesman said.
Difference to the Luca app
Incidentally, the integration of the check-in function in Great Britain did not mean that a visit to a restaurant is only possible with an app.
It is still possible to register in restaurants with pen and paper, but restaurateurs and some others are obliged to offer QR codes when they are open.
Because the solution is practical for restaurateurs compared to slips of paper, many encouraged their guests to use the app.
The check-in function, as offered by the British and soon apparently also the German app, differs from what registration apps like Luca offer.
After a possible risk encounter, the British app does not send any contact information to the health authorities, while Luca wants to make this data available to the health department via an interface.
The British app does not inform users of the day of the encounter or the name of the venue in the event of a risk contact.
Unlike Luca, tracing apps such as the British or German warning app do not collect any personal data and therefore cannot pass it on.
Even if both app models look similar at first glance, they fulfill fundamentally different functions in containing the pandemic.
While tracing apps are more likely to warn of anonymous risk encounters in places like the tram or in shops, apps like Luca help with contact tracking in venues and restaurants.
The Federal Data Protection Officer Ulrich Kelber believes that the idea of adding features to the warning app in addition to a check-in function, such as registration apps like Luca, is the wrong approach, precisely because such apps also collect personal data: »An integration of these I don't think apps in the Corona Warning App make sense because otherwise open questions about the pseudonymity of the Corona Warning App will arise, "Kelber told SPIEGEL.
In addition, there is a risk of suffocating possible good solutions from start-ups.
Kelber, on the other hand, advocates the coexistence of the Corona warning app alongside other apps with registration and other options for tracking contacts: "There is absolutely nothing to be said against citizens installing two or three data protection-compliant apps to combat pandemics," says Kelber .
"Of course, that doesn't change the fact that these apps and their providers adhere to all data protection requirements and have to be checked by the responsible authorities," explains the Federal Data Protection Officer.
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