DOHA - Privacy concerns over Qatar's coronavirus contact tracing app, a tool that is mandatory on pain of prison, have prompted a rare backlash and forced officials to offer reassurance and concessions.
Like other governments around the world, Qatar has turned to mobile phones to trace people's movements and track who they come into contact with, allowing officials to monitor coronavirus infections and alert people at risk of contagion.
The apps use Bluetooth radio signals to "ping" nearby devices, which can be contacted subsequently if a user they have been near develops symptoms or tests positive, but the resultant unprecedented access to users' location data has prompted fears about state surveillance.
Qatar's version goes considerably further -- it forces Android users to permit access to their picture and video galleries, while also allowing the app to make unprompted calls.
"I can't understand why it needs all these permissions," wrote Ala'a on a Facebook group popular with Doha's large expat community -- one of several such forums peppered with concerns over the app.
Justin Martin, a journalism professor based in Qatar, warned authorities in a tweet not to "erode" trust by enforcing "an app with such alarming permissions".
The government launched the "Ehteraz" app, meaning "precaution", in April and on Friday it became mandatory for all citizens and legal residents to install it on their phones.
Non-compliance is punishable by up to three years in jail -- the same term as for failing to wear a mask in public -- in a state battling one of the world's highest per capita infection rates.
'HIGHLY INVASIVE'
Almost 44,000 of Qatar's 2.75 million people have tested positive for the respiratory disease -- 1.6 percent of the population -- and 23 people have died.
Security forces manned checkpoints across Qatar on Sunday to ensure use of the app, local media reported, alongside checking for use of masks.
Criticism of the government is rare in Qatar and laws prohibit disrespect towards officials.
However, officials have said that the law on the app will be enforced with "understanding".
The app's simple interface displays colored bar-codes containing the user's ID number -- green for healthy, red for COVID-19 positive and yellow for quarantined cases. Grey indicates suspected cases or those who have come into contact with infected individuals.
Mohamed bin Hamad Al-Thani, a director at Qatar's health ministry, said that data gathered is "completely confidential".
"There will be an update for the Ehteraz app to address the issues of concern and further improve its efficiency," he added in an interview on state television on Thursday.
A new version of the software was duly released for Apple and Android on Sunday, promising "minor bug fixes", but without indicating that the invasive aspects had been removed.
The app was introduced just as authorities across the Muslim world warned that gatherings during Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr festival that marks the end of the holy fasting month could lead to a surge of infections.
'BURNER' PHONES
"There are two key concerns... with the app," said Human Rights Watch researcher Hiba Zayadin.
It "is highly invasive, with a range of permissions allowing the government access to things that are not needed for the purpose of contact tracing, permissions that are unnecessary and present a concerning invasion of privacy."
But also "many migrant workers in the country don't have compatible phones that would allow them to download the app and comply".
Online reviews have also complained that the app drains battery power and cannot be installed on older iPhone handsets.
Some have looked for ways around the policy.
"People are spending money and waiting in queues just to get burner phones to protect their privacy," wrote expat engineer Janko on one forum, referring to cheap handsets that could subsequently be disposed of.
There have been reports of a few users being wrongly classified as "quarantined" or "suspected cases".
"There's no need for photo access and other things. But it could be a good tool. It is a good way to prioritize whom to test," technology lawyer Rahul Matthan told AFP.
But "to work, they need a large number of people to use it. If people are dissuaded because of the app's overreach, then that would be a worry."
Agence France-Presse
FRANKFURT - The German government on Monday switched to backing a coronavirus-tracing app using technology supported by Google and Apple, ditching a German-led alternative that had come under fire over privacy concerns.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn and Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff Helge Braun said Berlin was now in favor of a "decentralized software architecture" that would see user data stored on people's own phones instead of on a central database.
"Our goal is for the tracing app to be ready for use very soon and with strong acceptance from the public and civil society," Spahn and Braun said in a joint statement.
The rollout of an app that would use bluetooth to alert smartphone users when they have been in contact with someone infected with the virus is considered crucial in the fight against the pandemic as countries like Germany relax their lockdowns.
Berlin has until now thrown its weight behind a pan-European app known as PEPP-PT being developed by some 130 European scientists, including experts from Germany's Fraunhofer research institute and Robert Koch Institute public health body.
But the proposed app had faced growing criticism over its plan to store data on a central server.
Critics said it would allow governments to hoover up personal information and could lead to mass state surveillance.
In an open letter earlier this week, some 300 leading academics urged governments to dismiss the centralized approach, saying it risked undermining public trust.
They said an approach being developed by Apple and Google, whose operating systems run most of the world's smartphones, was more privacy friendly.
The tech giants plan to collaborate with apps, like the Swiss-led DP-3T, that use a decentralized system, which would see data stored on individual devices.
The European Commission has also recommended that data harvested through coronavirus contact-tracing apps should be stored only on users' own phones and be encrypted.
The German government has repeatedly stressed that the use of any coronavirus app would be voluntary and anonymous, in a country still haunted by the spying of the Nazi era and the former East German secret police.
Agence France-Presse
MELBOURNE - The Australian government launched a controversial coronavirus tracing app on Sunday and promised to legislate privacy protections around it as authorities try to get the country and the economy back onto more normal footing.
Australia and neighboring New Zealand have both managed to get their coronavirus outbreaks under control before it strained public health systems, but officials in both two countries continue to worry about the risk of another flareup.
"We are winning, but we have not yet won," Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a televised briefing announcing the app's launch
The app, which is based on Singapore's TraceTogether software, uses Bluetooth signals to log when people have been close to one another. It has been criticized by civil liberties groups as an invasion of privacy.
The Australian government, which wants at least 40% of the population to sign up to make the effort effective, said the voluntary app, which would not track location, is safe.
The app's stored contact data will enable health officials to trace people potentially exposed to infections.
"It will help us as we seek to return to normal and the Australian way of life," Hunt said. "No one has access to that, not even yourself ... only a state public health official can be given access to that data."
A legislative directive ensuring that will be proposed to the parliament in May, the health ministry said on the app's website on Sunday.
A few countries, including South Korea and Israel, are using high-tech methods of contact tracing which involves tracking peoples' location via phone networks, though such centralized, surveillance-based approaches are viewed as invasive and unacceptable in many countries.
Trust in governments in Australia and New Zealand has risen since the start of the pandemic, opinion polls show, with leaders of both countries - ideologically opposite - hailed for their management in suppressing the coronavirus.
The rate of increase in new cases has been below 1% for two weeks now in both countries - much lower than in many other countries.
On Sunday, Australia's states of Queensland and Western Australia said they would slightly ease social distancing rules this week to allow for larger outdoor public gatherings, among others, but officials in Victoria, second most populous state, said they were not ready to relax the state's hardline restrictions.
Australia reported 16 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, which took its total to 6,703, according to health ministry data. There have been 83 deaths.
In New Zealand, there were four new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 1,121. Eighteen people have died, health ministry data showed.
On Monday, New Zealand will start to ease some of the world's strictest lockdown measures, and is also set to roll out a tracing app soon, but Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has warned this is not the only panacea.
"We have been very clear on from the beginning that no tracking app provides a silver bullet," Ardern said earlier this month.
-reuters-
