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In the emotionally directed discussion of a Corona app, the federal government wants data protection with a decentralized approach Convince To this end, the use of a consistently decentralized software architecture should be promoted, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn and Chancellor Helge Braun told the “Welt am Sonntag”. It boils down to an application that “uses the programming interfaces of the major mobile operating system providers that will be available shortly and at the same time integrates epidemiological quality assurance to the best of its ability.”
Braun also confirmed this to ARD’s capital study. It will drive a decentralized architecture that only stores contacts on devices and therefore creates trust. “Linus Neumann of the Chaos Computer Club welcomes the change of address.” I think it is a very good decision, “he told ARD.
For weeks, the federal government has been trying to introduce a corona app to track down infected and infected people. A crucial point of controversy is where the data is stored. While those previously favored Pepp-PT Project (Pan-European Privacy Preservation Proximity Tracking) looked for a core solution in Germany, i.e. a comparison of data through a centrally managed server, recently won the support of the decentralized DP-3T project (Preservation Proximity Tracking of decentralized privacy). Significantly more data must be transmitted because the information is compared directly from the smartphone.
Both models with traps
The Federal Ministry of Health had recently stated that it preferred central storage of user data. Said central server would be located at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany. The problem: Central servers are easier to attack and more susceptible to abuse than decentralized systems.
Users must trust the operator to deliver on their promises. There was considerable criticism from data protection experts against this variant: in an open letter, around 300 experts warned of the risk of surveillance and misuse if the data was stored centrally.
In the decentralized model, the comparison between infected people and their contact lists is done on the end devices themselves, which constantly request new information on newly infected people. Among other things, decided at the beginning of the week. Austria, where a Bluetooth-based contact tracking app is already in use, to switch to a decentralized model.
Google and Apple also favor this model, for which they initially want to offer a common interface on their dominant mobile operating systems for May, and a little later all the necessary functionality that makes an additional application unnecessary.
However, the decentralized variant also has considerable difficulties: the role of the platform giants is particularly problematic: Silicon Valley companies emphasize that decentralized design means they cannot link cell phone IDs and stored user profiles with them. On the other hand, Google has been particularly interested in the health data of its users.
