French Privacy watchdog approves contact tracing app
France's privacy watchdog CNIL on Sunday gave a conditional green light to a government-backed scheme to monitor people infected with coronavirus.
The issue of how to keep tabs on sufferers has sparked privacy concerns in several countries but the CNIL gave the nod to the StopCovid scheme subject to civil liberty guarantees and regular oversight.
The French device will, if the country is to begin a gradual emergence from lockdown on May 11, enable creation of an index of sufferers via a smartphone app along the lines of a model touted notably by Singapore.
The idea is to send an alert to those who have downloaded the app if they come into close proximity, for example, on public transport, with those who have tested positive for the new coronavirus and who are on the app register.
A number of European countries are considering using similar technology as a means of allowing a relaxing of confinement.
The CNIL move came as France, which has listed 22,614 COVID-19-related deaths to date, looks to May 11 to start relaxing nationwide lockdown restrictions imposed six weeks ago.
The government is due to unveil de-confinement measures on Tuesday in line with a range of recommendations Saturday from its scientific advisors relating to issues such as schooling and the wearing of masks.
The French government insists its scheme would see the app deployed on a voluntary, anonymous, temporary and transparent basis with all data stored in France in a bid to encourage maximum take-up.
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