Germany prepares to launch COVID-19 contact-tracing app ‘this week’ while UK version stuck in development hell
Germany will launch its coronavirus track-and-trace app later this week, Federal health minister Jens Spahn has confirmed.
In an interview with ARD Television, Spahn said the contact-tracing app will launch “this week” although failed to give a specific day. According to Reuters, local media expects a Tuesday launch.
ETA: also, discussion on Twitter while one of the more prominent privacy NGOs is speaking up against installation, with some rather overly critical arguments.
NY Attorney General warns Apple, Google to police COVID-19 tracing apps in their souks – or she will herself
The Attorney General of New York has warned Apple and Google she expects the tech giants to keep an eye on an upcoming crop of coronavirus contact-tracing apps, particularly when it comes to the accumulation of personal data.
What’s Norwegian for humph?
This week saw the the Norwegian coronavirus-tracing app pulled and all the information gathered deleted after its data regulator, Datatilsynet, found it was not adequately protecting personal records. Norwegian public health body (FHI) was told to stop all collection of data through its Smittestopp (Infection Stop) app because it could “no longer be regarded as a proportionate encroachment on users’ basic privacy rights.” Its main issue was with the fact that the app asked users to share their location data and did not give them a way to opt-out of providing it.
Winter is coming, and with it the UK’s COVID-19 contact-tracing app – though health minister says it’s not a priority
Once described as a key part of England’s COVID-19 test-and-trace system, the smartphone app being trialled on the Isle of Wight is no longer a priority for the UK government and won’t be ready until winter.
In May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England would have a “world-beating” tracing system from June, the Department of Health and Social Care having already committed to putting a mobile app at the heart of its approach.
No surprise: Britain ditches central database model for virus contact-tracing apps in favour of Apple-Google API
The UK government will abandon its centralised COVID-19 contact-tracing smartphone app in favour of the distributed system proposed by Apple and Google more than two months ago.
The decision follows word that the app, once said to be a key part of the government’s test-and-trace system, wouldn’t be ready until at least winter this year. We also warned weeks ago that it would be problematic due to technical, legal, and privacy hurdles.
At the same time, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has offered to roll out the German Corona-Warn-App in the UK in a short time at “zero cost to the taxpayers”. “If the government can’t pull themselves together, we can,” he threatened in a tweet.
“Threatended”, eh? Well, the vultures at El Reg are never timid.
Just BTW, did you see the discussions centring around @digitalcourage and @timpritlove on twitter?
If it wouldn’t be this serious, I would have been heading for the kitchen to pop some corn.
On a serious note: what’s really interesting right now is that developers are trying to make the version of the Corona Warn App without proprietary software. Those people are still looking for help.
Health Sec Hancock says UK will use Apple-Google API for virus contact-tracing app after all (even though Apple were right rotters)
As The Register warned in May, the British government’s original approach was on a collision course with various technical, legal, and privacy hurdles. For one thing, it was forced to use not-entirely-reliable unofficial workarounds to perform the wireless contact tracing.
Hold on, is this the same Jimmy Wales who took £20,000,000 of investors’ money, saying he would build an ethical social networking site for The People’s Operator that would be “similar to Twitter but better”, but then ran the company down to the ground in just a couple of years? The same head of the company that investor Georgina Brittain recently cited as her “worst investment and lesson learned”? The project that she said “totally failed to live up to the hype”?
Oh, I’d love to see this contact tracing app that Mr. Wales could have ready in two weeks!
Former UK Labour deputy leader wants to know how the NHS’s contact-tracing app will ensure user privacy
Harriet Harman MP, chair of Britain’s Commons Human Rights Committee, has written to UK health secretary Matt Hancock seeking clarity on privacy aspects of the government’s latest coronavirus contact-tracing app.
