The federal government has revealed how much the Corona warning app has cost taxpayers so far. The sum is shocking.
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Corona warning app: The app has cost the taxpayer so many millions of euros so far
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The Corona-Warn-App (CWA), which is free for users, has so far cost more than 130 million euros, as reported by the German Bundestag. This emerges from the answer of the federal government to a small request from the AfD parliamentary group.
According to the federal government, the development and operation of the Corona-Warn-App by the companies SAP and T-Systems in 2020 cost 52.8 million euros. According to the federal government, around 63.5 million euros have been spent on further development and operation in the 2021 budget year. So the development of the app alone has cost around 116.3 million.
In order to make the Corona-Warn-App known, additional costs of around 13.7 million euros were incurred in the press and information office of the federal government. In addition, there are expenses of around 71,000 euros for advertising in the digital sector.
Monthly charges
According to the federal government, operation and maintenance will cost around 3.94 million euros every month in 2021. According to a forecast, operating costs of around 2.66 million euros per month are expected for 2022. It is of course still completely unclear whether this prognosis will come true. In view of the often skyrocketing costs of projects in the public sector, however, skepticism is warranted here.
According to the federal government, the Corona warning app has been downloaded more than 40 million times since its launch on June 15, 2020.
However, the Corona warning app is by no means the only app that costs taxpayers a lot of money in connection with Corona. Because the federal states also spend a lot of money on the controversial Luca app, as reported by Netzpolitik. You can read more about the Luca app in these reports:
Security researchers consider the Luca app to be dangerous
Luca+: The Luca app is being greatly improved – the new functions
Do I need the new Luca app? FAQ with all answers
Corona warning app now also scans QR codes from Luca
Luca: These are the Corona hotspots – and Corona doesn’t stand a chance here
By the way:
Incidentally, the Republic of Austria is discontinuing its “Stop Corona” app, as reported by the ORF.
Version 2.16 of the Corona warning app has been available for a few days.