"StopCovid contributes to your protection and that of others", can be read in the description of the platform. While France enters Tuesday, June 2 in a new phase of deconfinement, the government launches at noon this application allowing to trace people contaminated by the new coronavirus. Like other countries affected by Covid-19, France is using a smartphone tracking tool in order to limit the spread of the virus.

The French government has indicated that the operation of StopCovid is "non-identifying" and "temporary". Its installation is on a voluntary basis and the application uses the Bluetooth functionality - and not the GPS - of the device to alert its users when they have encountered an infected person.

The use of such technology is debated in Europe and elsewhere. It is based on personal data, the use and exploitation of which vary from country to country. In France, defenders of digital freedoms point to a "legitimization of the surveillance of our bodies in public space", as denounced by the association La Quadrature du Net. 

Thirty countries have adopted sanitary tracking technologies for several weeks, at different scales of intrusion and coercion.

  • China

In China, where a population rating system has been deployed for two years, individuals are sorted according to a color code with an application developed by the online retail giant Alibaba. From the end of February, Alipay Health Code grants each user a green, yellow or red QR code depending on their geolocation data.

A person who has visited an individual or a place considered risky is assigned a yellow or red QR code. In several cities, such as Hangzhou for example, travel is conditional on obtaining the color green.

The New York Times has dissected the application's computer code. It appears that the tool transmits information to the Chinese police, allowing them to identify and geographically locate a user.

  • South Korea

South Korea is one of the first countries to be affected by a wave of contagions. She is also among those who have avoided general confinement by imposing GPS tracking on her nearly 10,000 patients. Telephone operators provided the geolocation of patients directly to the Center for Control and Prevention of Diseases.

Today, the authorities monitor people placed in quarantine in real time. According to AFP, an offender was sentenced to 4 months in prison in late May.

  • Israel

The Israeli internal security service, the Shin Bet, has been authorized by the government to organize digital monitoring of the spread of the new coronavirus. He has thus developed a surveillance program for infected people using GPS data from their phones but also by tracking their credit cards.

This program, which does not use a specific smartphone application, has sparked controversy in Israel, especially since the office of Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to include it in Israeli law. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on May 27 allowing the continuation of this project. Parliament must now approve its use "in special cases".

  • Singapore

Downloaded by barely a quarter of the population, or 1.5 million people, the Singaporean tracking application, TraceTogether, has flopped. However, a study by the University of Singapore had concluded that the population was ready to "agree to give up a little privacy to fight the Covid-19". Since June 1, some immigrant workers, especially those living in dormitories, have been required to connect to TraceTogether.

Authorities have also launched the SoftEntry portal. A QR code generator that gives access to certain public places only by entering personal information.

  • United Kingdom

The British health system (NHS) application, similar to the French system, was tested for three weeks on the Isle of Wight, in the English Channel, on a voluntary basis. Each user, and therefore each passer-by, has a series of digits for the sole identification data. This code is exchanged between smartphones when two people cross and it is kept in their phones for 28 days.

According to The Wire magazine, the application is programmed for a very limited function. "Nothing happens except when one of the users reports that he has symptoms of coronavirus," said the publication. Among the data collected: "the first digits of the postal code", "the type of telephone used" and "the strength of the Bluetooth signal".

The British and French approach is said to be "centralized" because the anonymized data collected is stored on central servers. On the Isle of Wight, and starting in June in the rest of the UK, this information is sent to the NHS, which decides whether an alert to other smartphones crossed for an extended period is necessary.

  • Italy

Another approach to Covid-19 tracking applications, known as "decentralized", consists of storing data only in users' smartphones. This is the case of the Immuni application, developed by the company Bending Spoons, which will be launched in Italy in June.

Also based on Bluetooth technology, it differs in the way of alerting users. The application is responsible for automatically notifying the user if there has been contact with an infected code, without going through the health services.

If this method allows to evacuate the fears of the "Big Brother" type, it worries about its dependence vis-à-vis Apple and Google, the two giants having proposed a common solution of social tracing on the decentralized model. Paris had refused this option, raising a question of "national sovereignty". Germany, for its part, is behind the decentralized model, like most European countries.

In Italy, Francesco Paolo Micozzi, lecturer on digital technology at the University of Perugia, explained the limits of the device to AFP: for the Immuni application to be really effective, it would have to be downloaded by 60 % of Italians ... or practically all the owners of smartphones in the country.

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