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Like other countries, France has also advanced with its mobile application to combat COVID-19. It is called StopCovid and, like others of its kind, allows monitoring of contacts made by people infected with the disease.
But there seems to be a problem that does not allow the function to work as desired on iPhones. Therefore, the French country now accuses Apple of not making an effort to make its computers more compatible with the application.
As another form of mass prevention of this pandemic, many countries are turning to mobile applications to monitor infected people. The objective is to try to determine the contacts they make with other people. As a general rule, these applications use Bluetooth to detect nearby computers, whose owner could also have been infected, due to having been in contact with someone with the disease.
Australia has already launched its application called SafeCovid, as well as Germany, as a strategy to contain the virus. In Portugal, there is something similar to consider, however it seems that most would not give up their privacy in favor of a coronavirus surveillance app.
On another continent, India has announced that it will compel all employees, from the public and private sectors, to use its application.
France accuses Apple of not trying to make its app work better
On Tuesday, France pointed a finger at Apple, saying Apple is not making an effort to fight the coronavirus, according to Reuters. The reason given is that the Cupertino company refuses to make its iPhones more compatible with the French monitoring app, called StopCovid.
The problem is that iPhones block access to Bluetooth, except when the user runs the application directly. That is, if the application is being used in the foreground, Bluetooth is limited to that function.
Therefore, the French authorities want Apple to change the settings of their smartphones, so that the StopCovid app can access Bluetooth when it runs in the background. In this way, it would always be fully operational. However, according to France, the tech giant has so far rejected the request.
According to statements by the French Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, Cedric O., to BFM Business TV:
Apple could have helped us make the app work even better on the iPhone. They don't want to do it.
I regret that, since we are in a period when we are all mobilized to fight the epidemic, and a large company that is doing well economically is not helping a government in this crisis.
We believe that monitoring the health system, in the fight against coranaviruses, is a matter for governments and not necessarily for large American companies.
In turn, an Apple spokesman in France declined to comment.
The French secretary of state said the StopCovid app should be implemented on June 2, regardless of Apple's position.
According to the results of the first quarter of 2020, released by Kantar, in France, iOS is used by 21.1% of people, while Android is found in 78.8% of Gaulish smartphones.
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