Germany surprised everyone on Sunday after making a completely surprising connection with Apple and Google, and this because many other countries chose to act completely differently. More specifically, Germany made the decision yesterday to use the system thought up by Apple and Google to monitor people's movements, and notify people by phone if it turns out that they have come into contact with people infected with the new Coronavirus.
Germany made the announcement through the Minister of Health Jens Spahn, stating that his country will adopt a decentralized approach regarding the monitoring of contacts between people. Germany was working on its own application that would allow the monitoring of contact between people, having total control over the data, but as Apple and Google integrate something at the operating system level, without the need for third-party applications, their solution is much better.
Germany: The very IMPORTANT decision regarding Apple and Google
Germany made this decision because the solution implemented by Apple and Google allows it to also take people's geolocation data, separately from information on the symptoms that people have. Until now, retrieving geolocation information along with Bluetooth contact information was not possible, and as Apple and Google did not want to allow this for applications, Germany decided to collaborate with both companies for the benefit of its citizens.
"It reversed course on Sunday on what kind of smartphone technology it wanted to use to track coronavirus infections, backing an approach backed by Apple and Google, along with a growing number of other European countries. Chancellery Minister Helge Braun and Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a joint statement that Berlin would take a "decentralized" approach to digital contact tracing, abandoning a home grown alternative that would have offered authorities medical a central control over data tracking.”
Germany will collaborate with Apple and Google to monitor contacts between citizens who will decide to allow monitoring of movements and contact with other people in iOS and Android. A special application will also be made by Germany with information about the Coronavirus, and not only, and the contact data will be used to alert people, at the operating system level, if they have come into contact with someone confirmed by the authorities to be infected with COVID-19.
Germany it is a country whose decisions matter extremely much in Europe, and its decision to collaborate with Apple and Google will certainly give others the courage to use this method of preventing the spread of the new Coronavirus.
