MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st April, 2020) At least eight European countries have joined efforts to launch a coronavirus contact tracing app initiative that will be compliant with the European Union's tough privacy law and collect encrypted proximity history based on Bluetooth signals between cellphones, according to the initiative's official website.
The initiative, called the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), brings together over 130 scientists, research institutions and companies across eight European nations.
The app will make it possible to "interrupt new chains of SARS-CoV-2 transmission rapidly and effectively by informing potentially exposed people" across national borders, while enforcing data protection and anonymization in line with the General Data Protection Regulation.
According to the initiative's website, the app will scan radio signals such as Bluetooth between mobile phones of PEPP-PT users. The encrypted proximity history will be temporarily stored on the phones, with neither geolocation nor personal data logged would allow the identification of the user.
"If the user of phone A has been confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2 positive, the health authorities will contact user A and provide a TAN code to the user that ensures potential malware cannot inject incorrect infection information into the PEPP-PT system. The user uses this TAN code to voluntarily provide information to the national trust service that permits the notification of PEPP-PT apps recorded in the proximity history and hence potentially infected. Since this history contains anonymous identifiers, neither person can be aware of the other's identity," the website said.
The news comes as countries across the world mull cellphone tracking to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The United Kingdom, for instance, is also preparing to launch a contact tracking app to alert those who have come into contact with people tested positive for COVID-19, Sky News reported on Tuesday.
