New reports on European coronavirus tracking apps show more about what these technologies are like, and some of the real obstacles they are running into.
Reuters reports, for example, on an Irish Covid Tracker app that has been somewhat effective in notifying residents about positive cases of covid-19.
The story also shows the extremely low rates of transmission in Ireland, compared to some other countries around the world: Reuters reports that although 30% of Ireland’s population signed on, the app only registered 58 positive tests in three weeks.
Being that the total population of Ireland is nearly 5 million people, you can see how low the infection rates are.
Experts are also impressed by the utility of the app.
“We’re seeing the whole end-to-end flow and success from that perspective,” said Colme Harte of the NearForm firm which designed the app.
Without documenting numbers of live cases, the story also covers the German Corona Warn app which was downloaded 16 million times.
But what covid tracking apps are running into, experts say, is obstacles related to the privacy designs on large digital platforms like those run by Google and Apple.
Specifically, examples of problems with covid trackers show how iPhone settings do not accommodate some of the most innovative apps out there.
Despite these types of setbacks, other E.U. nations are also touting corona apps.
“The SwissCovid app complements conventional contact tracing,” writes the Swiss FOPH in a bulletin. “It notifies users if they have spent a certain length of time in close proximity to a person infected with the coronavirus. In order for the app to send the notification, the person infected, on testing positive for the virus, is given a ‘covidcode’ by the cantonal medical service to enter into the app. Installing and using the app and entering the code are all voluntary.”
All of this underlines a major issue in the use of new technologies to monitor a public health risk. All of the stakeholders have to balance privacy concerns with the common good, and that’s proving to be a very difficult line to draw.
Keep an eye out if you have technology holdings, because the ways that companies engage in this dialogue may really determine how their products and services propel their stock prices in each financial quarter.
