These applications are designed to interrupt the infection chains «kleinezeitung.at

The following details on individual projects in German-speaking countries:

• STOP CROWN: The application of Austrian Red Cross (WCC) can now be downloaded as one of the few in Europe. It started on March 25. Now it has around 360,000 users. Stop Corona is based on a kind of contact diary. With Android devices the app works seamlessly in the background, with iOS devices (iPhone) this needs to be verified. The user is not initially identified. If Covid 19 disease is reported, the cell phone number is logged for 30 days to prevent abuse.

• NOVID20: More than 80 scientists, developers and data protection experts have come together in Austria to form the Novid20 initiative, which aims to develop their own software solution based on various Asian applications. Bluetooth and GPS data will be used, which in turn will be stored locally.

• PEPP-PT: The Pan European Privacy-Protection Proximity Tracing (Pepp-PT for short) platform is supported by more than 130 scientists and IT experts. Its aim is to create a software framework into which national applications can be coupled. Application developers are expected to integrate the technology, which uses Bluetooth technology to identify cell phones of people with whom an infected person has had contact. There have been long disputes over whether data is stored centrally or decentrally. The project’s co-founder Chris Boos, who is also a member of the German government’s digital council, told Reuters that both solutions were being worked on. Finally, each country should be able to decide for itself. Details are slated to be released on Friday.

• DP-3T: Scientists from various European countries are working on the technology behind Decentralized Proximity Tracking to preserve privacy (DP-3T). The main point is that the information about the contacts is stored in a decentralized way, that is, only on the smartphone. If a user tested positive, this information would be distributed to all other phones over the network. These then automatically determine if they were close previously.

• APPLE / GOOGLE: Both US tech giants. USA They are working together across device and operating system boundaries and want to ensure interoperability for health authority applications. In a first step, the programming interfaces (APIs) with which the applications can work will be published in mid-May. A little later, the applications will be integrated into the respective operating system, which is considered more sustainable and faster in displaying information. Companies do not want to develop their own applications. 99 percent of all smartphones worldwide use Apple and Google operating systems.

• DATA DONATION APPLICATION in Germany: Use existing data from fitness trackers and smart watches. Meanwhile, more than 400,000 people have voluntarily downloaded the app, giving the Robert Koch Institute of Germany (RKI) the opportunity to learn more about the effectiveness of measures to contain the pandemic and about the main areas of infection.

• SWITZERLAND Scientists and software developers are developing various tracking applications, all of which should work with Bluetooth and encrypted identifications. Initially it was not clear which applications (WeTrace, Next Step, Virus Tracker) will be available and when.