Germany is the latest country to roll out a national contact tracing app, designed to stem the spread of COVID-19 as more countries in Europe loosen restrictions and open borders to each other.

On Tuesday, Germany made its app available to download. Also Tuesday, the European Union announced that its members had agreed to standards that allow their various apps to share data.

Clifford Chance advised the German Ministry of Health on the implementation of its app, called the Corona Warn App. In preparing for the launch, Clifford Chance drafted and negotiated contracts with SAP and Deutsche Telekom, which were involved in its development.

"The challenge was the limited amount of time and the fact that we had two contract partners," Markus Muhs, who led the Clifford Chance team, told Law.com International.

On its first day, the app was downloaded more than 6 million times, according to the German public broadcaster ARD.

Italy and France have also activated their own apps, as have Australia and India. Britain is testing one as well.

The apps have raised concerns about privacy rights, including worries that governments will have access to personal data and tech giants will have too much power that infringes on individual rights. But countries have used different technologies, with some avoiding tech companies like Google and Apple. And even in European countries where belief in the need to protect individual privacy runs deep, the tracing technology has been generally accepted as a way to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 as businesses reopen and economies are revived.

Experts believe that if even 10% of a population uses a tracing app, it can cut down on infections.

Clifford Chance, in addition to advising on contracts with SAP and Deutsche Telekom, advised on legal issues related to open source licensing, Muhs said.

Deutsche Telekom and SAP turned to their in-house teams for the project. Waldeck Rechtsanwälte also advised Deutsche Telekom, led by partner Thomas Fischer.

The German app uses Bluetooth to record a person's whereabouts. Users who learn that they are infected with COVID-19 can record this information in the app, which then informs contacts of potential exposure.

Other countries have used different systems. In South Korea, authorities have used cellphone data and credit card activity to successfully track and contain infections. India has required its citizens to download an app. Australia launched its app in late April, and more than 5.1 million people downloaded it in its first 10 days.

The United States has been relying on human tracers rather than tracing apps to track the virus's spread.

Lisa Shuchman contributed to this story.

|

READ MORE:

Australian Privacy Lawyers Pen Letter in Support of Coronavirus Tracing App