On Sunday, a government minister announced that France’s state-supported “StopCOVID” contact-tracing app would reach its trial process in the week of May 11.
Minister for Digital Affairs, Cedric O, a member of the inner circle of President Emmanuel Macron, described the app as a core component of France’s plan to stave off the coronavirus as officials struggle with the possibility of mass testing.
O wrote on the online publishing platform, Medium:
“There’s nothing magical about this app, but it’s not technological coquetry either,”
“It’s only useful if it’s integrated into a global health system.”
Countries are scrambling to create software to assess one person’s risk of infecting another, helping to isolate those that could spread the virus.
Unlike others in Europe, France has selected the Bluetooth short-range “handshakes” between smartphones as the appropriate approach, discarding the alternative of using location data sought as invasive by certain Asian countries.
Controversy has erupted about whether to record those communications on individual devices or on a central server- which would be more directly useful to existing contact tracing teams that work phones and knock on doors to warn those who may be at risk.
So far, France has opted for a “centralized” approach, which would require Apple to adjust its iPhone settings in particular. While negotiations with the U.S. company is continuing, Apple has refused to change its settings, O added.
O also said in his statement:
“French health and technological sovereignty … is the freedom for our country to be able to have the choice and not be constrained by the choices of a large company, however innovative and efficient it may be,”
The Panthera Post 