Bitkom: Every third user of the Corona warning app does not report an infection

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Take, but not give - that is apparently the strategy of a large part of the users of the Corona warning app.

Every third user of the app admits that they do not want to report anything in the application in the event of an infection.

That is the result of a representative survey on behalf of the digital association Bitkom.

"We see here the result of a widespread fear of data protection in all areas of society," said Bitkom President Achim Berg.

Anyone who uses the app for their own protection and recognizes the deadly danger of the coronavirus, but does not want to warn their fellow human beings of an acute risk of infection for fear of their data, is obviously deeply insecure.

Almost 70 percent of people who do not want to report a positive test result cite concern about data protection as their personal argument against sharing.

Four out of ten of these people generally do not want to communicate any health data.

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The notification via the app is a central part of the concept.

Only when infected people enter their positive test result in the app can people who have had closer contact with them be warned.

These warned people should then be tested and isolated themselves.

If the warning is omitted, the app loses its effect.

Source: WORLD infographic

Despite everything, the willingness to use the app continues to increase.

According to the study, every third respondent aged 16 and over has installed the app on their smartphone.

Another 17 percent want to do this in the future.

Together that would be 33 million people in Germany who either use it or who have plans to do so.

For comparison: last July this group comprised 28 million people.

240,000 positive test results

Although every third user of the app boycotts the most important part of its function, Bitkom speaks of a "great success".

More than 240,000 people have now entered their positive test results via the app.

In fact, this is only a small part of the 2.3 million Germans who have been proven to be infected with the corona virus.

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The Bitkom President therefore calls for greater use of the app: "In the pandemic, we should all feel an obligation to install and actively use the Corona warning app." Every app user thus improves his self-protection and can also make an important contribution to the health of one's fellow human beings.

According to the survey, those who use the Corona warning app do so often - almost 90 percent even at least once a day, more than one in five even several times a day.

Bitkom is now calling for a change to the Corona warning app and advocating automatically warning contact persons of infected people in the future if a user does not object to the warning.

Because currently there is no incentive to share a positive test result via the app.

"An automatic warning message with the option of objection would lower the hurdles for each individual, and the effectiveness of the app would increase further," said Bitkom President Berg.

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More than every second German citizen would support the automatic sharing of test results, according to the study.

14 percent even want such an automatic warning without any possibility of objection.

App now also for older iPhones

However, there are also users of the Corona warning app who refrain from doing so.

Seven percent of those surveyed deleted the app from their smartphone.

Every fifth respondent does not want to install the app even though they have a suitable smartphone.

So far, many iPhone users have not been able to use the app because they are using older models.

From now on, however, the application can also be used on iPhones of types 6, 6 Plus and 5s.

After all, almost 60 percent of those who previously lacked the technical requirements for the warning app want to install the app, according to a Bitkom survey.

"The information is much faster with the people"

Recently there had been a lot of criticism of vaccine procurement and corona policy in the EU.

In an interview, Health Minister Spahn commented on European solidarity in the Corona crisis and defended, among other things, the benefits of the Corona warning app.

Source: WORLD

Smartphone owners give various reasons why they do not want to use the Corona warning app.

44 percent of them have fundamental doubts about their effectiveness, and around one in four fears disadvantages in the event of an infection or has data protection concerns.

One in seven fears that they are "being spied on by the government".