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Just getting together with friends or just being in public can change dramatically. In Lithuania, a mobile application may appear very soon to inform others about a nearby person infected with a coronavirus.
Health Minister A. Veryga told reporters that a high risk of possible transmission of the virus would be controlled.
“You see people nearby, telephones, within walking distance. You can record the time you were at the telephone. If a person has been next to each other for 15 minutes, or more, for a short distance, it is already considered a high risk due to possible transmission of the virus, “Veryga told LNK News.
A person infected with a coronavirus must voluntarily install the application and activate Bluetooth. In this way, everyone who is close to that person would receive a message about the patient.
According to A. Veryga, Latvians and Estonians plan to implement it.
“Obviously, there will also be an opportunity to coordinate them with other countries, because when you rush and create something very unique, it can be difficult to integrate it with other countries. Those technologies and common understanding are coming,” said the Minister.
Human rights professionals see a number of dangers. Birutė Sabatauskaitė, director of the Center for Human Rights, told LNK News that you must ensure that the app does not collect excessive data about a person.
“It is very important that the device ensures that it does not collect data and that it is not used for any purpose, including to generally find out where and where specific individuals are located, when used for monitoring. In order not to collect such data from centrally, ”said B. Sabatauskaitė.
Residents differed in such an application. Some said the information about the coronavirus was enough, others doubted it or it simply would not be a violation of privacy. Others supported the idea, saying that they supported the idea due to the need to temporarily give up individual rights due to such a pandemic.
A similar app has been launched in Germany in recent days. However, not all Germans are happy with that.
“Following people scares me, but if it helped me, I wouldn’t rule out signing up,” said a Berlin resident.
German IT experts say there is no guarantee that the application is completely secure.
LNK recalls that a mobile application for self-isolation care has also been created in Lithuania. It is to this application that the alert function for nearby patients can be adapted.
Algirdas Stonys, a former consultant to the National Center for Public Health (NVSC), told LNK News that not all countries allow the app to be installed voluntarily.
“As far as I can see, there is a tendency in Lithuania to choose a decentralized path, protect this data and give people that consent. And, for example, in other countries, like England, it is mandatory there,” said the consultant.
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