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Bloomberg
A group of German startups are working on an application that will help the government track people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus and, ultimately, ease restrictions when the pandemic begins to subside.
Startups including insurance firm Wefox Group Services GmbH, software provider Finleap and artificial intelligence platform Arago announced the app in a website.
Arago, which is run by Chris Boos, an adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, is developing the privacy framework the app will be based on. The opt-in application that would map close contacts anonymously in case a sick person fails to recall all of their interactions.
The entrepreneurs are working with government agencies for public health and telecommunications — the Robert Koch Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institute — which will test the app’s accuracy before it goes to the government for approval, people familiar with the matter said. If the government signs off, the application could be rolled out as soon as next week, they said.
The government is looking for a “technically possible and politically realisable†way to use technology to follow and break the chain of infection, the Ministry of Health said. It’s accompanying the development of different technologies, including ways to determine the contacts of infected people, the ministry said.
The framework — known as Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing — provides standards, technology, and services to countries and developers across eight European countries.