How Europe Has Divided With Contact Tracking Apps

A businessman takes Eurostar from London to Paris for a meeting. Geneva cyclists board the picturesque French village of Annecy. Italian family heads to the riviera on vacation.

These once banned trips have in common, as the country wants to return to normal after Covid-19. Despite the rollout of a smartphone app that tracks a chain of infected people, it may not be visible to public health officials.

According to the researchers and policy makers involved in the project, an uncoordinated approach to the contact tracking apps adopted in different countries and lack of leadership from the EU is a problem.

Starting in March, a modest but collaborative effort between scholars and computer developers to create a single European protocol began with different national interests, a commitment to privacy, and finally Announcement In mid-April, Apple and Google plan to launch their own system with the software on almost every smartphone in the world.

With one system that works everywhere, Europe could probably open its borders faster this summer.

“It’s a shame as a result of all of our efforts … one system that works everywhere will probably allow Europe to open its borders faster this summer,” said the app. Is Aymeril Hoang, a technical expert who advised France about

Instead, the United Kingdom, France, and Norway have used their technology to strengthen their data and controls for health authorities, while Germany, Italy, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland have Apple-Google standard. Spain remains undecided.

Solutions could still be found, for example, if technology companies and holdout countries reconcile the differences, or if everyone tunes in to Apple and Google.

Brussels seeks consensus, but a meeting between the Minister of Communications and Commissioner on Tuesday failed to resolve the division.

Pan-European scientists from labs such as Inria in France and Fraunhofer in Germany began talking about how to track viruses that are more palatable for Europeans who value privacy over the invasive technologies used in Asia. Attempts to build the system began in early March.

They discussed how much and what kind of data they collect, and how to protect it from both hackers and governments that are committed to surveillance.

By 1 April, the group will be publicly announced that a coalition of 130 scientists from 8 countries will create a series of “standards, technologies, services” called Pan-European Privacy Proximity Tracking (PEPP-PT). Did. It does not collect location data, complies with strict European privacy laws, and can interoperate across borders.

But there’s already a lot of tension behind the scenes about how the app works, especially when it has data., Must be sent to a central database operated by the national health authorities.

In Germany, for example, researchers decided early on that the app needed to complement efforts by authorities to manually track outbreaks, but this was a centralized approach to sharing data with epidemiologists. will become necessary. The French also sought some control from health authorities.

Others felt that only a decentralized structure, where the government had little access to data, was adequate to minimize the risk of abuse. On April 3, the faction published a protocol called Distributed Privacy Protected Proximity Tracking (DP3T).

“Things quickly deteriorated. Marcel Sarate, a scientist at the Ecole Polytechnic Federal Federal Lausanne, who was in the PEPP-PT group and helped create the DP3T, had no consensus among the researchers.

Issues were raised when Apple and Google announced they would launch a distributed system similar to DP3T. “It was a dramatic event,” said one official.

Suddenly, in countries with a centralized model, I wasn’t sure if my app would work with Apple or Google’s application programming interfaces (APIs).

The German and French teams provided questions to the company via video call and was told that there was only one API, which would ruin the work. “It was a bit of a shock to our consortium,” said one of the German projects, and added that attempts to convince Apple and Google to address them have failed.

Austria and Switzerland soon announced they would use Apple-Google. And in a shock move, Germany I also decided to switch. Politicians, including Health Minister Jens Spahn, didn’t want the app to be left behind if Google and Apple refused to support it, people familiar with the matter said. The next domino that fell was Italy.

EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said he is encouraging countries to use “distributed storage” to ensure app compatibility. “More and more countries have such an approach.”

However, France and the United Kingdom continued to use their own apps, despite fears that similar apps in Singapore and Australia wouldn’t work as they suffered from incomplete tracking data and drained the mobile battery. ..

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Weeks of discussion about contact tracking apps

March 18

The UK is the first country to say that the EU is working on a contact tracking app.

March 20

Singapore has launched a voluntary Trace Together app and has released open source code.

March 31

The Oxford University dissertation claims a contact tracking app used to control fashion and unlock lockdowns.

April 1st

Pan-Europe privacy protection proximity trace (PEPP-PTThe project was announced. Its mission statement To help create contact tracking apps that are GDPR compliant and interoperable across the EU.

April 3

First white paper DP3T (Distributed Privacy Protected Proximity Trace) recommends that all data be stored on the mobile phone.

April 6

EU Data Protection Watchdog Ask A single pan-Europe mobile app. In Berlin, Angela Merkel’s spokesman Stephen Seybert tells journalists: .. .. A collection of different European tracking apps. ”

April 10

Apple and google He says he is working on a platform for contact tracking apps that will be released in mid-May.

April 16

EU is that “Toolbox” How to build the app and its features. Norway has released an app, a “centralized” system that allows governments to collect data.

April 17

Split is developed between PEPP-TP and DP3T. Swiss researcher Marcel Sarate leaves the PEPP-TP group. EU Parliament Call the app It will be decentralized.

April 18

French and German developers “Robert” protocol Centralized app online.

April 22

Austria and Switzerland say they will use the Apple / Google system.

April 26

Germany says it will switch to the Apple / Google system.

May 4

UK Launch a centralized contact tracking app At the Isle of Wight trial.

Sarate was amazed at the solemnity: “With Apple and Google, we hoped that all international compatibility efforts would converge.”

“Instead it turned into a weird battle and some people said,” We are not going to force these technology giants to force us. ” It wasn’t about technology or doing the right thing, it was about politics. ”

There are still potential breakthroughs as the app will take weeks to go live. The French-German team recently submitted another protocol to technology giants aimed at reducing privacy concerns, but was rejected.

France will pilot the app next week. The UK is currently testing, parallel Google-Another app based on Apple standards.

“I’m not against Apple or Google, but I don’t want to be forced into a particular technology approach based on internal policies,” said Cedric O, France’s Undersecretary of Digital. “States should be able to make their own choices on such important issues. It’s a matter of sovereignty.”

Additional Report by Nick Phildes of London and Dundon Bee of Madrid