StopCovid, France’s new contact tracing app released just weeks ago, has been downloaded 1.9 million times according to the French government. It has been activated by a little more than 1.8 million for those users.
If you are diagnosed with Covid19, your hospital or testing facility will give you a QR code, or a code string made up of letters and numbers. You can then choose to open the StopCovid app and enter that code to share a list of ID’s of individuals you have come into close contact with over the past two weeks.
The app then assigns a risk score to the individuals associated with those ID’s. If their score rises above a certain threshold, that user receives a notification. The app will recommend they get tested and follow any additional instructions.
Officials are trying to assuage privacy concerns surrounding such contact tracing apps. StopCovid can be disabled on your smart phone and you can delete your personal data whenever you want, officials say.
Contact tracing apps seem to be here to stay and their reach is only going to spread farther.
“The application is working well. In short, we can detect most contacts that we should detect,” France’s digital minister Cédric O said. “If I have one regret it’s obviously that it isn’t compatible with other European countries.”