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Politicians hesitated for months, but now everyone agrees: A new app for digital contact tracking should come - or several.
This is intended to accompany the “opening steps”, break chains of infection as quickly as possible and identify clusters.
It is still unclear who will win the race in the end - because there are many competitors: simple registration apps such as the Cologne solution “Recover”, with which shop owners can log their customers in and out.
Or, for example, online check-ins with coupled negative Corona test evidence, which is offered, for example, by the “Placelogg” app.
And then there is the media-praised but criticized as technically opaque “Luca” app from the Berlin start-up Nexenio.
Health authorities are overwhelmed
This list alone makes it clear: The large selection of programs and apps makes it more difficult than ever to establish uniform contact tracking.
This could lead to problems in particular on the part of the health authorities - because many are already overwhelmed with the digital processing of contact lists.
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Because there are now over a dozen potential solutions, users could also be overwhelmed: Do I need a different app for the trip to the Baltic Sea than for a weekend visit to Munich?
Do you check in differently in restaurants than in the theater?
More about Covid-19
A logical step would have been to program corresponding features in the federal corona warning app from the start.
It is used by around 26 million people - the start-up solutions can only dream of so many downloads so far.
However, the app, which was developed by Telekom and SAP for around 60 million euros, is designed for maximum data protection in accordance with the requirements of Google and Apple.
The exchange and transmission of contact details to authorities has not yet been possible, as the contacts are only transmitted anonymously.
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For months it has therefore been clear to many programmers and digital entrepreneurs: The federal app is not suitable as a companion for opening steps.
A new system was needed - or several.
"The federal states ensure that the mandatory documentation for contact tracking can also be in electronic form, for example via apps," is the latest decision of the federal-state conference.
It does not say which app the countries should agree on.
The specification of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG), however, is clear: “The MPK has stipulated that we should agree on a uniform system.
The BMG has worked towards this, ”writes the house of Jens Spahn (CDU) at the request of WELT.
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In addition, the ministry continues to rely on the Corona warning app - and now wants to expand it: "The federal government is working on an event registration in the app.
This should be available shortly after Easter. ”The main feature of the app, the anonymous transmission of warnings, should also be preserved in this function, according to a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health.
Smudo's contact tracking app can do that
Smudo, the rapper of the Fantastischen Vier, developed an app together with experts.
"Luca" is supposed to help in the corona pandemic to gradually reopen shops, restaurants or even concerts and festivals.
Source: WORLD
The new function in the Corona app should work as follows: In the future, restaurateurs, organizers or shop owners should be able to create a QR code, which customers and guests can then read using the Corona warning app.
“No personal data is exchanged.
But if someone tests positive and enters that into the app, everyone is warned anonymously, ”explains the spokeswoman.
The catch with this procedure is that it is voluntary: it only works if infected users also participate - and enter their results.
A contact follow-up by the health authorities, as requested by the Bund-Länder-Round, does not work with it.
So an additional solution has to be found - and the federal states can choose which one it should be.
So far, however, they have not been able to agree.
Instead, they go it alone: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania wants to be the first federal state to establish the Luca app across the board.
The state government announced on Wednesday that it had bought a corresponding collection license for 440,000 euros.
If the federal states follow the guidelines of the BMG for standardization, the conclusion of the contract could serve as a model for other federal states.
Nationwide, a good 30 of 375 health authorities already work with Luca.
But that would favor a solution that has come under increasing criticism in the past few days: "We don't quite see why a single app should now be accepted nationwide just because a pop star has done successful media work", is a comment by a product manager from a competing company.
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The German rapper Smudo, bourgeois Michael Schmidt, co-financed the Luca app and advertised it in the media over the past few weeks.
WELT also reported on it several times.
Luca app: Nexio wants to reveal source code
But data protectionists also have concerns about the Smudo solution from Berlin: So far, it has not been disclosed how precisely the data of the users is processed securely, criticized Bundestag member Anke Domscheit-Berg on Twitter.
The app also does not use existing security mechanisms in Apple's iOS, according to the critics.
Nexenio is now responding, at the end of March they want to reveal the source code for transparent control.
Why not immediately, the makers keep silent about that.
The company did not respond to a WELT request.
But the suspicion is obvious: at the end of March the contracts with the countries would be signed and sealed, only then would you expose yourself to possible criticism.
The start-up association "Wir für Digitisierung" from Cologne is against a nationwide uniform solution.
More than 20 start-up companies belong to it.
"That can only be doomed to failure," says Jan Kus, spokesman for the initiative and founder of the competing app Recover.
A hackathon started almost a year ago, during which some of the members developed applications such as “May I go in”, the “Hygiene Ranger” or “GastIdent”.
"Consistently relying on only one application would be a slap in the face of dozens of programmers who developed solutions months ago," says Kus.
For the Recover app, restaurateurs or restaurants pay a tariff of 15 euros per month, large event organizers between 200 and 1100 euros.
A “collaborative, open and common interface” to which all contact data acquisition systems could be connected, including Luca, would make more sense.
The data from the various recording solutions could then be transmitted to the systems of the health authorities via a uniform interface for tracking.
And the Telekom subsidiary T-Systems is already working on a corresponding interface with the software group SAP.
According to the company, more than 80 percent of the technology has already been developed.
The basis should be a common "Open Standard Gateway" through which all apps can securely exchange data.
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The Corona warning app should also be integrated into it.
However, the concept does not reveal how this should work while maintaining anonymity.
By connecting the “Sormas” software, offices are to obtain the data for contact tracking.
How long Telekom and SAP will still need for their system is unclear.
Under no circumstances should users delete their apps
But it is questionable anyway how sustainable the discussion is.
Because if Germany were to vaccinate faster, the apps for contact tracing would soon no longer be necessary.
Should the vaccinations progress by summer, the telecommunications technology would probably only be relevant for a few weeks.
But vaccinated users shouldn't delete their apps for a long time.
In all likelihood, the start-ups and corporations are currently developing the technical basis for coping with upcoming pandemics.
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