A sign with distancing rules and the notice that masks must be worn, is seen at the entrance of a shop, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues in Erfurt, Germany, April 24, 2020Germany is employing Apple and Google's "decentralized" approach to contact tracing in its efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Google and Apple propose contact tracing software that keeps private information, like contacts, on a user's phone rather than pulling that information into a collected database.Germany changed course on Sunday over which type of smartphone technology it wanted to use to trace coronavirus infections, backing an approach supported by Apple and Google along with a growing number of other European countries.
In Europe, most countries have chosen short-range Bluetooth "handshakes" between devices as the best approach, but have differed over whether to log such contacts on a central server or on individual devices. Although Bluetooth-based smartphone contact tracing is an untested technology and early results in countries like Singapore are modest, its development is already redefining the relationship between the state and individual.
Germany's change of tack would bring its approach into line with that taken by Apple and Alphabet's Google, which said this month they would develop new tools to support decentralized contact tracing.
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