The Cnil has given its green light on Tuesday to the implementation of StopCovid, the application of tracing of contacts for smartphones intended by the government to combat the epidemic of coronavirus. In its opinion released Tuesday, the Cnil considers that the application complies with the various legislative provisions relating to the protection of privacy, and makes some recommendations for its implementation.
How the application works StopCovid ? © DR
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The application StopCovid will allow a user to keep track of other users crusaders for the last two weeks (less than one metre for at least fifteen minutes). If the user discovers that he is a carrier of the coronavirus, it can prevent people crossed by notifying the application of its contamination.
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StopCovid raises fears of a good number of privacy advocates, who fear that it marks a first step toward a surveillance society where our actions would be controlled continuously by automatic systems. But, in its opinion, the Cnil, which had already given a green light in principle April 24 – finds that the developers of the application have built a number of safeguards to prevent excesses.
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This formula, however, a few observations to further strengthen the protection of the privacy of individuals. The Cnil wishes to, for example, an " improvement in the information provided to users, in particular as regards the conditions of use of the application and of the terms and conditions of erasure of personal data ", she said in a press release. The Cnil also wants " specific information for minors and parents of minors ", and confirmed in the decree on the application of a " right to objection and a right to erasure of data pseudonymized saved ".
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StopCovid will only be available as a strictly voluntary basis. The application works without gps, but on the basis of the technology Bluetooth, which allows electronic devices to communicate between them at a short distance.
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the national Assembly and the Senate will debate on Wednesday the government project, prior to express themselves by voting. "Subject to a vote in Parliament ", the application could be in the app stores of Google and Apple as early as this weekend, said Cedric O, the secretary of State to Digital, in an interview with le Figaro on Tuesday.
