Available since June 2, the application sends a signal in the event of close and prolonged contact with a person who has tested positive.
StopCovid divides: some see it as an effective way to fight the epidemic, others fear state espionage. The government wants to make it a tool to fight against the transmission of the virus, in addition to physical distancing, barrier gestures and monitoring of contact cases. At the end of May, the senators validated this device, after a first favorable vote in the National Assembly.
A contact case tracking application
StopCovid is available on Apple and Android phones. If two people have installed the application, and they stay close to each other, i.e. less than one meter, and for at least fifteen minutes, the software saves the mobile information.
In the event that one of them tests positive, they must report it in the application. Then, the second person will receive a “push” alert within 24 hours: “Risk of exposure to Coronavirus, you have come across a person who tested positive for Coronavirus in recent days”. The user is then encouraged to go to the application to find out what to do. He must isolate himself to protect his loved ones and consult a doctor, to be tested afterwards.
????The app #StopCovid is available !
Download now at:
➡️ App Store: https://t.co/Z7r6WstK8e
➡️ Play Store: https://t.co/bpKEenqjrF
More information on https://t.co/yIGjylzy9L pic.twitter.com/VcVyUqsrQJ– Ministry of Economy and Finance (@Economie_Gouv) June 4, 2020
No tracking of geolocation data
StopCovid works using Bluetooth: it detects the signal from nearby phones. On its site, the Ministry of the Economy ensures that location data is not used by the application.
As explained The world, the application creates a cryptographic key for each user at the time of installation. Each time it is active, it sends temporary keys to other users. Those received by the phone are stored temporarily, and only if they have been detected for more than fifteen minutes and within one meter. The device is anonymous: only encrypted pseudonyms are identified. After fifteen days, all identifiers are deleted.
The support of the CNIL and part of the scientific community
Several digital security organizations have tested the app. The National Commission for Computing and Liberties delivered its opinion on May 26th. It considers that StopCovid “respects the concept of data protection from the design stage” and informs that the recommendations made in a previous opinion, published on April 24, have been followed by the government. In parallel, several test phases were carried out, followed by a “bug bounty” at the end of May: cybersecurity professionals searched for security flaws in the application, and corrected them if necessary, with a reward.
In a column, published on April 25 in The world, 60 scientists have advocated using the app to successfully fight the spread of the virus. “From a health point of view, the StopCovid application, duly supervised, must be part of a national epidemic control strategy,” they said. According to the decree that accompanied its launch, StopCovid should be inactive within six months of the end of the state of emergency. Six hundred thousand people have already downloaded it.
