Privacy-minded Germans wary as Berlin develops nationwide Covid-19 tracking app & calls for EU-wide system

The government is working with developers and testers to get the high-tech tool "to the point that we can bring it into widespread use among the population in the coming days or weeks," Head of the Chancellery Helge Braun told local media on Monday. The app has been billed as one way in which a nationwide shutdown to contain the virus could be eased and eventually lifted. The government has said obligatory face masks in public, as well as a limit on public gatherings, would also help accelerate a return to normalcy. The lockdown is scheduled to end on April 19.
Stressing that it would only be a short-term solution to tracking coronavirus cases, Braun said that the EU “definitely” needs a bloc-wide system. "The worst thing that can happen is that there are many different tracking apps,” he argued.
The plan for an app to track cases in Germany has already come under fire from skeptical citizens. One particularly suspicious observer compared the app to stars of David that Jews were forced to wear under Hitler’s rule, adding that it was “scary” to think about how many fellow Germans might be willing to use the program.
A less conspiracy-minded Twitter user noted that the concept seemed bizarre to begin with because a large portion of at-risk elderly people don’t even own smartphones.
Singapore has already developed a similar system which notifies users if they have been in the vicinity of someone who has tested positive for the virus. However, Europe has much stricter data privacy laws which could place limitations on what developers — and governments — are allowed to do.
If the bloc does adopt a single app, it would mark a noticeable turn-around from Europe’s every-man-for-himself approach to the health crisis so far. Creating a unified front to combat the pandemic has proven extremely difficult for Brussels. Plans to provide aid to hard-hit states such as Italy and Spain have already caused tensions among better-off nations like Germany and the Netherlands. Discussions about easing border restrictions are also reportedly meeting resistance.
Source: rt.com
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