17-06-2020

EU promises cross-border corona warning apps

As of this week, a tracing app for tracing infection chains is also available in Germany. The EU announces its plans to help the tracking system function across borders.

Contact tracing apps are regarded as a possible key technology for combating the corona pandemic. The apps record who is near their users. If someone reports as infected, all contact persons should receive a notification. After the launch in several European countries, a version of the Corona-Tracing-App is now also available in Germany since this week. Experts commented positively on the fact that after intensive discussion an approach was chosen in which user data is stored decentrally on the smartphone. This ensures compatibility with other European tracing apps that follow the same principle.

The EU Commission is striving to create the technical prerequisites for the interoperability of the decentralized apps so that they can function across borders. French Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton said: "As we appraoch the travel season, it is important to ensure that Europeans can use the app from their own country wherever they are travelling in the EU."

However, the Commissioner was obviously unable to convince his own country of the need for a uniform approach. The data is stored centrally there. Therefore this application is not compatible with decentralized operating apps. Therefore, in order to ensure traceability, the national variant would also have to be downloaded.

cep examined in an Adhoc the European legal background of data protection issues concerning tracing apps and thereby requires a voluntarily given consent of the users. Consent must be "freely given", which is why Member States cannot make the use of the apps a condition for lifting contact bans.