Do I have to download the app StopCovid ? Many rumors and information that is erroneous still circulate on the Internet. Yet, everything seems to have been made to ensure that this application complies with the data of its users.
In spite of communications reassuring the government, the rumors and disinformation continues to circulate on the app StopCovid. It must be downloadable as soon as Tuesday, June 2 (at the time we publish these lines, it is not yet available on iPhone and Android). But, many French say already that they do the will download not. According to a study*, 45% of them did not approve of the device of tracing, and 23% reject it completely.
If the protection of privacy must be guaranteed, the French show themselves to be febrile to equip this application that must allow a person who comes to learn that it is contaminated in the know to those with whom she has been in contact for several minutes (in transport for example). We will be focusing on the rumors circulating on the Internet.
StopCovid can access all the user’s contacts
False. Among the rumors which have certainly doubt the French, one which ensures that the app “sucks” the contacts of its user. Part of Switzerland, which uses a different app than in France, the disinformation has spread on Facebook and has even been relayed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the national Assembly on may 27. However, as pointed out by the national Institute of science and digital technologies (INRIA), the application has no technical means to access the database of contacts of a user.
“Then I will not take the application #COVID19. I benefit from the privilege to be the rostrum to say to all those who have me in their directory : remove my name immediately from their phones if they take them the application !”, says @JLMelenchon.#DirectAN pic.twitter.com/Qqq6zUW8D0
— LCP (@LCP) May 27, 2020
StopCovid is installed automatically
False. This is another disinformation that is circulating on social networks since a few days and that has been shared thousands of times : the application StopCovid would have been installed on all the phones. In fact, the confusion comes from the fact that, in a recent update, Android and Apple have dedicated a page linked to the Covid-19, and offer an option to enable or disable for notifications or ” journalisations exposure Covid-19 “. An option that only works if you have previously “ downloaded and used an application of digital traces that uses these resources , “explains the researcher in cyber security-Baptiste Robert FranceTVinfo.fr.
StopCovid allows you to geolocate a user
This is false also ! The Bluetooth technology, only needed to run the app StopCovid, does not allow the geolocation. The application does not use the GPS function, note the Baptist Robert, who has scrutinized the source code of StopCovid.
The application will not work on iPhone
This is one of the “hole in the racket” of the application : it will only work very imperfectly with the iPhone. In fact, Apple and the government had not reached an agreement, the restrictions on use of the Bluetooth of the iPhone have not been exercised. If an iPhone is in standby or the app is in the background (in the background), access to the Bluetooth is not allowed by Apple. This is also the case, moreover, the latest generations of Android, operating system on which the government has managed to add a feature. The application allows you to “wake up” the Bluetooth of an iPhone that would pass nearby. Still it is therefore almost sure that two iphones that are near will not tell them…
Author(s): FranceSoir
