Jun 20 (Japan Times) - The government launched Friday a free smartphone application that alerts users when they may have been in close proximity to someone infected with the coronavirus.
While the app potentially raises privacy concerns, the government says it was designed with privacy in mind and that personally identifiable data are not collected from users.
“It does not collect personal data at all. People can use it without worry,†Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said at a news conference Thursday, encouraging people to download the app to help stem the spread of COVID-19.
When individuals who are using the app come into contact with one another at a distance of a meter or less for 15 minutes or more, their smartphones automatically record the event in an encrypted state using Bluetooth wireless technology.
The record will remain in their devices for up to 14 days before it is automatically removed.
If a user tests positive and registers that in the app, other users who come into close proximity to the individual will receive an alert from the app.
Registering a positive test result only requires that the patient use the “processing number†assigned by health authorities, rather than names, phone numbers and other personal information.
Information on time and place of contact, as well as patients’ identities, cannot be known by the government and other app users, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which is operating the program.
The tool is expected to improve the current tracing system, which is based on interviews with infected people conducted by officials from public health centers.
