How the first European apps to track COVID-19 work

Since the beginning of the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a hot topic on the table: how to control people's contactsto find out who has the disease and how to alert those around you. The solution took the form of an application. Now there are several tools in Europe to be alerted if we are close to an infected person. We have tested one of them and here we tell you about our experience of use.

The solution was copied from a Chinese idea: an application that, thanks to location technologies and mobile connectivity, allows you to know who you hang out with and who you don't Of course, the idea came served with a great controversy. And it is that, what happens to my privacy if an application knows when, where and with whom I interact. That's when Google and Apple get into action, offering development tools to create an application that allows you to do all this while safeguarding the user's privacy. A system of tokens and references that cannot be used to personally identify the user, but rather link profiles with COVID-19 positives and their relationships with other profiles. Well, thanks to these tools, the first tracking applications have already emerged. And that of France, Switzerland or Latvia are some that are already available to their population. The one from France, you can even use it in Spain, and we have gone out with it installed on our mobile.Although it doesn't make much sense if, for the moment, no one else uses it, of course. And it is that one of the disadvantages is that users must use them proactively.

Permissions and operation

The application is installed as usual. The example we have tested is called StopCovid, and it can be downloaded from both the Google Play Store and the App Store. Of course, it's completely free.

As soon as you install it on your mobile, StopCovid does a complete review of its operation and its usefulness. It consists of an application that is always running in the background on your mobile and that constantly connects to the bluetooth of other nearby mobile phones In this way, if it comes across a user who has tested positive for COVID-19 and who has registered it in the application, a notification will give you the notice.Or, at least, you will be able to know if you have been close at some point to a positive profile. Of course, if you are the one who is infected, you will send this information to the rest of the mobiles that use the application. Wow, it works as an identification and warning system to try to keep our distance and be informed of our interactions.

But how do you do it? It is safe? And, above all, is it private? Before putting the app to work, in the case of StopCovid at least, you will have to go through several pages of information. They detail what it knows about you and what connections the application uses to transfer information

This application, and the rest that use the tools developed by Google and Apple for this same purpose, take advantage of the Bluetooth connectivity of mobile phones.With it you can detect other terminals in a range of up to 10 meters Therefore it is ideal to know which profiles have been nearby wherever you go. But this also implies a higher than normal battery consumption on your mobile. Of course, it is reported that this connectivity is not used to send or receive location data, only to estimate the proximity between two phones.

The information being transmitted is encrypted. StopCovid calls it ephemeral pseudo-identifiers, and they are strings of numbers, letters or signs that are renewed every 15 minutes that prevent the tracking or specific identification of a person. These data are sent to the server managed by the Ministry of Solidarity and He alth (in the case of StopCovid because it is an app of French origin). Of course, only if you are positive for COVID-19 and accept the sending of the information. The application will then check this data to find out if you have ever been close to a positive case to alert you that you are at risk of contagion.

StopCovid ensures that data is stored only on the mobile. Except, of course, if you test positive for COVID and voluntarily register it in the application to be able to notify those around you. In that case, you will share your proximity history with the Ministry of He alth. Of course, all data is automatically deleted every 14 days

After knowing all this information about the application, it's time to give permissions. Permissions to control the Bluetooth connectivity of the mobile and let this tool remain active even if it is in the background That is, it continues to work as if we were using it, but while we answer WhatsApp messages, watch YouTube videos, etc. In this way, its work does not stop, recognizing Bluetooth connections from other nearby mobiles and checking with the server if any of them is positive for COVID-19.But never collecting data from your location.

Warning Notifications

Once we have given permission to the StopCovid application to connect to Bluetooth and we allow it to be active in the background, all that remains is to activate it. Its operation depends exclusively on us, so there is a button on the main screen with which to activate or deactivate it at will In this way we will avoid the continuous waste of energy that using Bluetooth, and we will also avoid situations in which we are protected or isolated, and where this tool is not so necessary.

Once it is active, as we have already said, the Bluetooth connection does not stop working by identifying the terminals around you that also have the application. If any of them is from a person positive for COVID-19, it will trigger a notification on your mobileThus, you will know that you have been close to a person who could have infected you. You will not know who, or from which mobile the notice comes. The only thing is that you will have the information so that you can take action in this regard, contacting your doctor if you believe that contact has been a real risk.

Of course, the application also allows you to register as positive, if your tests give this result. In StopCovid there is a special tab for this process. Just click on Declare me positive and fill in the information from your report. Specifically with a QR code or an alphanumeric code that in France is being given to these medical results. With this, and after confirming the sending of this sensitive information to the server, you will be informing the rest of the users of the application that come across you at some point. A responsible way to try to avoid new infections as much as possible. Although it will always be the responsibility of each user who makes a difference by consciously using the application, but also applying measures such as social distancing, the use of masks or regular hand washing.