It is not yet on track, and may never be, but it is getting a lot of talk. The StopCovid application, on which the authorities are working, must allow a user, if deployed, to be warned if he has encountered a person infected with the coronavirus. All while storing on their smartphone, for a defined period, the identifier of all smartphones detected nearby thanks to Bluetooth wireless technology.
But the problem, explained Tuesday the Secretary of State for Digital, Cédric O, before the Senate Economic Affairs Committee, is that Bluetooth technology does not allow to measure exactly the distance between two smartphones. And therefore to know if there is a real risk of contamination or not between the carriers of the devices.
Hence the question that Cédric O asked himself this Tuesday: "Are we going to succeed in having something that is precise enough to serve its epidemiological objective?" " Answer: "I am optimistic, but not completely certain". The Secretary of State added to the senators that "it is the subject of very intense work that we are carrying out with the Germans, who are a little ahead of us, but who have shared their expertise".
A debate in Parliament
The American giants Google and Apple, which own the two major smartphone operating systems in the world, announced Friday that they are working together to facilitate the implementation of such applications. But "they did not explain exactly what they planned, said Cédric O. We have technical exchanges with Apple and Google and exchanges in parallel with the German government on how we can progress in the coming days. […] Any help can be welcome (…) but it must be done on government conditions ”.
Emmanuel Macron said Monday during his speech that he wanted a debate in Parliament by May 11 on the techniques of tracing data from phones to fight against the Covid-19. "This epidemic can not weaken our democracy or bite some freedom," he said, while the tracing is criticized by privacy associations and even in the ranks of the majority.
Society
Coronavirus: Small groups, masks, course content ... How could resuming school from May 11 happen?
Cinema
Coronavirus: The Cannes Film Festival will not take place (either) in July and envisages new "forms" for 2020
- Digital
- Covid 19
- Coronavirus
- Health