Apple and Google announced on April 10 that they are developing a software infrastructure, within measures against the Covid-19 epidemic. It is an application for citizens to know, maintain and transmit to governments with whom we meet on a daily basis, in order, according to them, to obtain "information that better prevents the spread of the virus", as well as to alert people who have been in contact with the sick and facilitate quarantines and selective examinations.
Like almost all the projects being studied in Europe, it would work using Bluetooth technology to determine whether a person has been in contact with another sick person rather than continuous monitoring of geolocation. When two users are very close, this information would be recorded by the application; and if one of them appeared later with symptoms of Covid-19, the application would send an alert message.
"Support" governments
The intention is "to help governments launch these contact tracing applications and to complete the lockdown earlier." According to the multinationals, it would allow the authorities many more options to identify new groups of infections.
Like the systems implemented by several Asian countries, several European countries, including France and Spain, are currently analysing the creation and/or use of similar software. The Czech Republic will launch a similar application this month. Britain, Germany and Italy are also developing their own instruments to learn about population movements.