Paris (AFP)
The contact tracking app for smartphones StopCovid topped downloads on Wednesday morning from Google and Apple application stores, according to specialized company AppAnnie.
The company does not communicate figures on the number of downloads, but at the beginning of the morning, the secretary of state for digital Cédric O had indicated on France 2 that the number of downloads had reached 600,000.
"It's a very good start," he said.
The StopCovid application must allow its users to be warned if they have recently encountered, within one meter and for more than 15 minutes, another user who has been found to be contaminated by the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19 .
According to Mr. O, the government hopes that "several million French people" will download the application, so that it is as effective as possible.
StopCovid will be most useful in places where you come across people you do not know, such as "bars and restaurants, public transport, shops", he explained.
The application is however criticized by IT experts and lawyers, who see it as a first step towards a surveillance society where our actions and gestures are permanently traced by automatic systems.
But for the government, sufficient locks prevent diversion for surveillance purposes - including the fact that the application works with aliases that change regularly, and not plain text identifiers.
Downloading the application is a strictly voluntary act. No employer, trader, service provider, authority has the right to impose it.
© 2020 AFP