The contact tracking application for smartphones StopCovid deployed in France as part of the coronavirus pandemic, was at the top of downloads in France Wednesday morning on the application stores of Google and Apple, according to the specialized company AppAnnie.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation
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 government hopes that "several million French people" will download the application
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 .
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> First unconventional evening at the restaurant: "It feels like going back three months"
> Economic crisis: "There are going to be two shocks, one on unemployment and one for young people"
> How to distinguish from allergies from the coronavirus?
> Seasonality, cross-immunity, end of the epidemic: the latest questions on the virus
> Can we catch the coronavirus on a plane?
> Coronavirus: 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
According to Cédric 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.
A first step towards a surveillance company
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.
>> READ ALSO - Jacques Toubon on the Stop Covid application: "What will become of the data?"
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.