French lawmakers to debate COVID-19 tracing as parts of Europe contemplate reopening
France’s parliament is set to debate the implementation of a soon-to-be-finalised contact-tracing app to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Several European countries, including the UK, Germany and Switzerland, are racing to develop digital tracing apps that will rely on short-range Bluetooth connections to inform citizens if they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. Controversy has arisen over whether the personal metadata tracked by tracing apps is collected by governments and could infringe on privacy.
European leaders are at odds with Apple and Google; the US tech giants are jointly designing a contract-tracing program for COVID-19. The tech firms say they will not release the software until countries agree to abide by their privacy standards, as governments initially sought to compile the information in a central database.
Expect Paris to continue to lobby to allow government-designed proximity Bluetooth tracing, with the tech companies likely to agree to an exception should the data storage be decentralised. Several countries have already agreed to the companies’ terms, arguing that if citizens are fearful of privacy violations, they may forgo using the apps entirely.
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