William Gallagher
French telecom company Orange says that it is still in discussions with Apple over allowing its COVID-19 contact tracing app greater access to iOS core features, potentially risking users' privacy.
As Apple and Google's coronavirus contract tracing technology arrives for developers, France continues to hold out for its own system — and for Apple to allow it better iOS access. Apple has already refused to disable iOS security features for it, but now the head of telecoms firm Orange insists talks are still open.
"There are meetings almost every day. It's not a done deal yet," Orange CEO Stephane Richard told Reuters, "but we have a discussion dynamic with Apple that is not bad."
Germany had previously been backing a similar national app, and Richards says that claims the country has agreed to side with Apple and Google are simply not true. "Beware of statements we've heard," he said.
"The Germans are keeping a channel open," he continued. "They didn't choose one side versus another. The Germans are working on the two options at the moment. I am still hopeful everything will manage to converge quickly."
Apple and Google's system performs contact tracing and exposure notification primarily on-device, meaning that users' data is not stored in any central database. France's system requires that central database and, even within France itself, this is raising concerns about privacy.
Britain's NHS has opted to reject the Apple and Google system in favor of its own app because it, too, wants to collate data on central servers. The British system will start to launch "in the coming weeks," while Orange now says its French StopCovid app should be ready by the start of May.
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8 Comments
Funny how this virus is exposing the true nature of these EU governments. They pounded their chests over the GDPR and how they were protecting EU citizen’s privacy rights. Now they want to collect data and store it on central servers. Perfect case of do as I say, not as I do.
And as for the GDPR, all that has gotten us is incessant, annoying pop-ups announcing that cookies are in use... on every damn website one visits.
So half of the countries complain that there is not enough privacy and the other half complain that there is too much. *shrug* I guess taht means it’s about right.
Three words for this and all tracking apps ... No, no and NO. Baa, baa, baa said the sheep as they were unknowingly led to slaughter. At least the actual sheep were unknowing. You people can not make the same claim. Welcome to chapter 2 of the police state only this time they expect you to download their app and voluntarily comply with their action to take away your privacy and freedom and they want to convince you (successfully among so many of you) that this is necessary to protect you from Covid-19. Every single nightmare book, paper, movie, etc. from the 80s and 90s about authoritarian government and wannabe dictators has or is slowly becoming true. Covid-19 is the best thing that ever happened to proponents of killing freedom and democracy.