The Government is adopting a decentralised approach for matching contacts, and relies on voluntary adoption of the app.
Background: Governments in a number of countries are developing applications to track the spread of the coronavirus, with the help of the telecoms industry. Different approaches are emerging, the main difference being between a centralised approach, where the matching with potentially infected people happens on a server, and a decentralised approach where the process takes place on users’ handsets. On 26 April 2020, the German Government stated their preference for the latter approach and for voluntary use of the application.
More detail on how the app will work is revealed: On 28 April 2020, the Federal Chancellery announced that the app is being developed by Deutsche Telekom, together with software solutions provider SAP. The Government notes it is important to have interoperability with other European solutions, in line with the recommendations recently issued by the European Commission, and that the Federal Data Protection Authority has been involved from the outset, as well as the Cyber Security Centre. The app will use Bluetooth technology to identify the contacts that meet certain criteria. In the event of an infection, the encrypted IDs of the infected are made available to all the app users, so that they can check whether they were in contact with those people. In the event of a match, the user is warned of the critical contact. A user that tests positive for coronavirus can also have their contacts informed through the app on a voluntary basis.
Data sharing will be voluntary: Neither infected people, nor those who are in contact with them, receive personal information about one another. The app is being built to prevent misuse of the notification of the infection. After completion, the app will be released by the Robert Koch Institute. In a subsequent stage, a research server will receive pseudonymised data for quality purposes, based on voluntary data donations by the users.
