[ad_1]
Even if the Corona app is not a pure success model, the pandemic will certainly produce digital solutions as well. Now there is more and more talk about the Luca app. What is all this?
Who developed the Luca app?
The app was developed by the three Berlin developers Philipp Berger, Marcus Trojan and Patrick Hennig at the end of 2020. Their company, Nexenio-GmbH, is a spin-off of the Hasso Plattner Institute. The development of creative artists like Smudo was supported by the “Fantastischen Vier”. The application is available for iOS and Android and is free for users. Only the health authorities have to pay for its use. But there is also the option of ordering a keychain with a QR code or generating a temporary QR code through the operator’s website.
What is the application intended for?
According to the operators, the application is intended to complement the official federal government corona warning application by allowing “fast and data protection compliant contact management and contact tracking for private meetings and public events, for shops and restaurants, thus involving health authorities and considerably facilitating their work. ” So you could replace visitor or guest lists and avoid misinformation that is often used.
How does the application work?
After downloading, the user logs in with their name and address. The phone number is verified by SMS code. Then you can create QR codes yourself, which are used in public or private meetings. However, you can also scan QR codes created by others and “register” with hosts, restaurants, or event organizers. At the end of each visit, you can recheck or allow the app to check in when you leave the location using the app’s location.
What is this information used for?
The application compares the times that different visitors stay, for example, in a restaurant. If it turns out later that there was a corona-infected person among them, the health department asks the host for the details. All potential contact persons are then informed of the potential risk contact via the app.
Is data protection guaranteed?
The manufacturers emphasize that the data is managed decentrally on “ISO-27001 certified servers in Germany” in encrypted form and deleted after 30 days maximum. According to her, the data of the guest, the host and the health department is only collected by the authority and only when they officially request the data. Neither the hosts, guests, third parties nor the application operators themselves would have access to it. Also, only the health department can read the QR code for contact tracking. If the user deletes their account, the health department can still see the data according to the operator, but can no longer inform the user through the application in case of infection.
Is the application already in use?
Google Playstore currently shows around 10,000 downloads, with Apple ranking third in public services. However, user ratings remain highly mixed. In Sylt, Amrum, Föhr, also in Husum and in Salzlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt and Jena in Thuringia, the application is already being used. Thuringia now plans to use the app nationwide. Rostock, Cologne and Baden-Württemberg are also holding talks on this issue.
How does the usage look in concrete terms?
160 distributors, restaurants and hotels are already registered on Sylt. The application is already being used in offices. In the future, it could also be linked to the registration of spa cards. Additionally, the island also encourages visitors to install the app to enable infection tracking in the summer season.
What other problems are there?
The local health department has to be involved for the app to be really useful. So far, this has only been the case in select areas. But only there can the data finally be gathered. On the provider’s website, you can use zip codes to check if the app is already available for your own residential or vacation area.
Could the application be part of future opening concepts?
At the meeting of the Union parliamentary group on Tuesday, North Rhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Armin Laschet mentioned the Luca app, according to information from ntv. Contact recording time would be shortened well with the app and tracking would be sped up. That might help. He had already phoned Smudo about this. Health Minister Jens Spahn is said to have already spoken to Smudo, but without committing himself. Laschet saw as an advantage that the Luca application was connected to the Sormas system (“Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System”) of the health authorities. This, in turn, should be used in all health offices by the end of February, but according to the Ministry of Health, only 151 out of 376 offices have so far connected to the digital system. Also, use is not mandatory because offices can decide for themselves which contact tracing system they want to use.
