Contact Tracing: Europe’s Coronavirus Tech Tangle

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Czechs Rush for the Coronavirus Exit

European countries are at different stages in developing COVID-19 social-tracing apps that governments can encourage — not require — people to install on their smartphones.

Since privacy watchdogs have decried the use of location data, most nations have chosen Bluetooth-based technology as the best way of registering potential contact with those who have been infected.

While most states in Western and Southern Europe are still tinkering with the technology, some countries in Central Europe have had tech-based solutions for social tracing up and running for weeks. The Czech Republic and Poland are leading the way.

An Apple iPhone running a test version of the 'Next Step' smart phone app using Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (DP-3T) to trace COVID-19 infections, in Darmstadt, Germany, 26 April 2020. Germany has changed its course in the debate over a coronavirus tracing app, favoring decentralised data storage over a centrally managed server. Photo: EPA-EFE/BEN WENZ

Playing their own game

In Poland, people returning from abroad are required to stay at home for two weeks of quarantine. The government asks them to download an app to verify they are complying with the rules. At random times, users are requested to take selfies and upload them to prove they have not left the house. 

The Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs is also grappling with a Bluetooth-based social-tracing app intended for wider use.

"We're still working on the application," Joanna Debek, a communications officer at the ministry, said in a phone interview. "It will be released very soon," 

But it is the Czech Republic that leads the pack when it comes to "fast...

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