By Friday, one million Norwegians had already downloaded the "Infection Stop" app, the Norwegian Public Health Institute's (FHI) latest strategy in the fight against the spread of corona.

- We encourage as many people as possible to download it. Data on how we move and how many we meet will be important to see how the infection measures work and how many close contacts we have. When data is collected, you get a message if you have been in close contact with an infected person, and then you get advice on how to handle it, says Gun Peggy Knudsen, assistant director at FHI, in a statement on the authority's website.

Gathers location information

Anyone using the app needs to enter their phone number so that the people they have been in contact with can be identified. The app should know which ones have been two meters or less away for more than fifteen minutes in the last seven days. If any of these people then test positive, you should be notified that you should quarantine. Anyone infected must register it via the app themselves, according to the Norwegian site tek.no.

The data will then be analyzed by FHI to see the extent to which people keep distance with each other, to get an idea of ​​how well the restrictions work.

The app will be developed step by step. The first week, data will be collected and analyzed. In the next phase, FHI, together with some test municipalities, will compare manual and digital infection detection. Those who live in the selected municipalities will eventually be able to receive sms if they have come in contact with an infected person.

"Big concern in the IT industry"

All personal data is stored for 30 days and it is optional to download the app. But voices have been raised that "Infection Stops" may violate personal integrity.

Norwegian IT expert Simen Sommerfeldt tells the newspaper Dagbladet that there is great concern in the IT industry.

- There is no doubt that this information is an attractive target for hackers and that it can be used for, for example, blackmail, he tells the magazine.

So far, there are no official statements about an infection tracking app in Sweden. But according to SVT's sources, researchers are working on a Swedish version.

In a comment to SVT, MSB said in early April that "cooperation is ongoing on this with relevant stakeholders, we will soon be able to tell you more."