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A12 TECHNOLOGY
Wednesday 23 september 2020
As Europe faces 2nd wave of virus, tracing apps lack impact

By KELVIN CHAN "The privacy issue is a po-
AP Business Writer litical choice," said Sean
LONDON (AP) — Mobile L'Estrange, a social scientist
apps tracing new CO- at University College Dub-
VID-19 cases were touted lin who has studied testing
as a key part of Europe's and tracing. "To the extent
plan to beat the coronavi- you can maximize privacy,
rus outbreak. Seven months you increase the credibility
into the pandemic, virus of the app because it won't
cases are surging again arouse suspicion."
and the apps have not The U.K. government
been widely adopted due switched to Google-Apple
to privacy concerns, tech- technology for its new virus
nical problems and lack of app for England and Wales
interest from the public. after scrapping a central-
Britain, Portugal, and Fin- ized version because of
land this month became technical issues.
the latest to unveil smart- The apps aren't costly.
phone apps that alert peo- Startup NearForm built Ire-
ple if they've been near land's for 850,000 euros
someone who turned out ($1 million) while Finland's
to be infected so they can came in under budget at
seek treatment or isolate - A man shows the contact tracing app Stayaway Covid on his cellphone, in Lisbon, Thursday, Sept. 900,000 euros.
a key step in breaking the 17, 2020. The U.S. doesn't have a na-
chain of contagion. Associated Press tional tracing app but some
But a few countries have states have launched their
scrapped their tracing tion has so far been less ernment surveillance first ly log the proximity of any own. Pennsylvania and
apps and others that have useful: he hasn't received raised when some coun- other smartphones with the Delaware decided to use
rolled them out have found any. "Unless there's a huge tries launched tracing apps app installed. It does not NearForm's technology.
so few users that the tech- surge, which I suppose it months earlier. track the phone's where- Even if it picks up only a
nology is not very effec- may happen, that's when Finnish users said they felt it abouts. few extra cases, the Irish
tive. The adoption rate we'll see how effective it is." was a civic responsibility to Users who test positive for app is worth the money
goes from about a third of Places that have had the install it. COVID-19 upload anony- given how little it cost, said
the population in Finland most success in getting "It's our duty to take of care mous codes to alert others L'Estrange.
and Ireland, to 22% in Ger- people to voluntarily use vi- of the health of our fellow who've been in close con- But is it possible to deter-
many and a meager 4% in rus-tracing apps tend to be citizens and those close to tact. The design is aimed mine whether these apps
France. smaller countries in North- us," said William Oesch, 44, at preserving user privacy, have had any effect on
Health officials initially tar- ern Europe where trust in a photographer in Helsinki. and that might be one controlling the pandemic?
geted a 60% adoption rate, the government tends to Ella Ahmas, a 23-year-old factor helping adoption, We might never know for
an optimistic goal based be higher and where peo- business student at Aalto though it also hinders ef- sure, said Stephen Farrell,
on an Oxford University ple are comfortable with University, said she was sur- forts to track their use and a computer scientist at
study from April although new technologies. prised the government had effectiveness. Trinity College Dublin who
researchers noted a lower Finland's app quickly be- been able to persuade so They don't yet work across has studied tracing apps.
uptake still helps if other came one of Europe's most many people to download the European Union's many That's because most apps
measures, such as social popular when it launched it, when Finns have been borders, but six countries don't require contact infor-
distancing, are enforced. at the start of September, less willing to use simpler have started testing a virtu- mation from users, without
Kevin Kelly, an accountant racking up about 1 mil- methods like wearing masks al "gateway" that enables which health authorities
in Limerick, Ireland, says lion downloads in the first on public transport."It's this. can't follow up. That means
his country's app is easy to 24 hours. Downloads have not really a huge effort to More intrusive approaches it's hard to assess how many
use and helps gauge local kept rising roughly a third download the app, which have been less successful. contacts are being picked
infection trends by show- of the country's 5.5 million works on its own," she said. France's app, which uses up only through apps, how
ing how many cases each people now have it. Ahmas and Oesch a centralized data storage their positive test rates com-
county has. He mainly uses "I've gotten several calls shrugged off privacy issues, system criticized by privacy pare with the average, and
the check-in feature to re- from people in their eight- and noted their personal activists, has an adoption how many people who are
port his symptoms daily, but ies calling to know how the data was already held by rate of just 4% months after being identified anyway
worries that only a fraction application works," said the likes of Google and its launch. Norwegian of- are getting tested sooner
of the other 1.3 million users Aleksei Yrttiaho, a spokes- Facebook. ficials were forced to halt and how quickly.
do, too. man for the Finnish Institute Most European tracing their app because of pri- "I'm not aware of any
"Everyone downloaded it for Health and Welfare. apps are built on a Google- vacy concerns over its use health authority measuring
but I'm not sure who is regu- Public trust in the govern- Apple smartphone inter- of phone location data. and publishing information
larly using it," said Kelly, 43. ment helps allay concerns face that uses Bluetooth Israel's app uses both Blue- about those things, and in-
The exposure alert func- about privacy and gov- technology to anonymous- tooth and phone location deed they are likely hard to
data and says that uptake measure," Farrell said.
has not been as strong as At most, apps can provide
hoped. an overall number of alerts
China, COVID-19's original sent. In Ireland, more than
epicenter, doesn't have 300 people who have test-
a tracing app but instead ed positive have uploaded
one that shows a colored their codes, resulting in 900
code indicating health sta- close contact alerts, out of
tus, adding to the country's over 33,000 confirmed cas-
electronic monitoring. es overall.q