Contact tracing, the European turning point that we were waiting for
Too little, too late? Certainly an earlier (even preventive) agreement would probably have speeded up this step, but every step forward is still less regret on the way to fighting contagion containment. In an emergency, looking to the past leaves the time it finds: the future is too heavy to waste time in retrospective analyzes of dubious utility. Tomorrow is made of interdialogue between apps and that's what counts. Immuni is part of the process and that's what matters. We will have an extra weapon even beyond the border and this is what matters.
Contact tracing, Europe's move The announcement comes from the European Commission and is thus explained by the Commissioner for the Market Interior Thierry Breton:
As the tourist season approaches, it is important to ensure that European citizens can use their country's application wherever they travel to the EU. Contact tracking apps can be helpful in limiting the spread of coronavirus, particularly in the context of national strategies aimed at lifting the confinement measures.
Echo Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Safety food:
digital technologies are essential to alert our citizens about the risks of infection and to stop the chains of transmission as you proceed to the reopening of our societies and economies. I invite our citizens to make use of them, because these technologies can be effective only if we have a critical mass of users and the interoperability of applications between a country and the EU. Do not descend to compromises in the field of data security, fundamental rights and the protection of private life in relation to these digital tools.
important Words, because they express all of the principles that are the basis of the initiatives of the contact tracing that you are going to be put into place, day after day, at the european level: the monitoring is important, the digital solutions can be a key, and with the protection of privacy, not that you will come to a compromise.
The app you speak All of the apps, to the european contact tracing (provided they are oriented on the Framework A/G decentralized, which is also the basis of the Italian project) will be able to talk to each other. What does this mean? Let's explain with an example: if an Italian citizen who has installed the app Immune were to go on a vacation to Berlin, and unfortunately had to have a close contact with a German citizen and after a few days should be positive to Coronavirus, if the German had installed the app Crown-Warn-App, then a notification will arrive on the app Immune to the Italian citizen. This situation, that no investigation of the health authorities would never be able to emerge, might, however, be drawn from the Bluetooth networks recorded from your smartphone, allowing you to climb more easily to the origins of the contact, the nature of the possible contagion, and to the right protocol health care (monitoring, buffers or anything else).
This multiplies the effectiveness of the operation of the app in German, as the Italian application because the system provides the goodness of both the systems.
Everything must be done not only with the blessing of the European Commission, but also through a technical intervention, directed in order to foster the interdialogo between the app and the exchange of communication between the different systems of contact tracing:
The information of the proximity shared between the app will be exchanged in encrypted form in such a way as to prevent the identification of a single person, in line with the strict EU guidelines relating to the protection of the data for the app, and will not be used data geolocation. To support the further optimization of the system, the Commission will establish a service gateway , i.e. an interface for the reception and transmission efficient of the relevant information sent by the app tracking contacts, and from server national. This service will minimize the amount of data exchanged, and, in so doing, it will diminish the consumption data of the users.
This exchange is not yet possible today, but the yard is open and the app updates in the next few weeks will tell the story of a Europe that has learned how to do a system because this is what is required for the EU to deal with an emergency. In the last few weeks have been agreed interoperability protocols and have been established the technical specifications to fulfil to be able to participate in this system. All of the apps you will need to basically implement the encryption codes issued by other app counterparts, preserving the memory for a predetermined period of time and knowing, you can check the possible occasions of contagion through the european gateway.
All the apps should have only a temporary character, so they can be readily removed when the pandemic will end, and will work anywhere in the EU, in a cross-border and on all operating systems. Interoperability is of fundamental importance, because thanks to it, the massive and voluntary tracking app, national will be able to facilitate the loosening of the measures of confinement and the withdrawal of restrictions on freedom of movement throughout the EU.
Interoperability as the value added The compatibility of cross-border is a step forward of great importance for the future of the contact tracing because it allows you to put together the individual experiences. Every piece of data entered into this cauldron has added value increasing, since increases (even if only a very small part) the possibility that a user subject to a contact at risk may override this situation by making himself a messenger for too many hours in a dangerous situation and potential contagion. All of this happens in the hours in which Beijing is measured with the terror of a new outbreak, Germany has a population of 400 new infections in a single company and the whole world looks to the serious situations of the United States, Russia and Brazil, where the dead continue to increase without slowing down.
The contact tracing is perfectible (particularly in relation to the interpretation of the Bluetooth signal in the measurement of distances and real-world contacts at risk), but the collective work of research and refinement can make it a useful tool for tracking flu during the treacherous months that separate us from the distribution of the vaccine and new treatments. The turning point european with the app is that it was needed, because it closes a hole in this mechanism is carried since the early days and also opens up new opportunities to an idea of Europe that wants to say – and build – together.
Source: European Commission
