TousAntiCovid loses its primary functionality. © Getty Images / SOPA Images
You had probably already forgotten its existence on your phone. The TousAntiCovid application, developed at the request of the government to respond to the challenges of the health crisis, loses one of its main functions: the contact tracing.
“The feature (…) is now disabled”
Used to identify contact cases using the Bluetooth sensor of smartphones, the contact tracing aimed to limit the chain of transmission of the virus. A function that it was necessary to activate in the application in order to authorize the use of Bluetooth in the background. A manipulation carried out by a very small number of people. It doesn’t matter today, since the feature has been deactivated since January 25th.
When attempting to report positive on the app, users now receive a message informing them that the service has stopped. “The functionality of contact tracing is now disabled. If you test positive, we invite you to warn the people you are likely to have met while you were contagious by asking them to apply the health recommendations and to avoid contact with people at risk of infection. serious forms”thus informs TousAntiCovid.
An information message when the old button is clicked. © Capture TousAntiCovid
A device of little use for the CNIL
The deactivation of the service is part of the strict application of the new regulatory framework, as indicated to BFM Lunabee Studio, the company behind the development of the application. On January 31, 2023, the law of July 30, 2022 will put an end to the exceptional regimes adopted to fight against the Covid epidemic. Many measures are thus abolished, including those related to the contact tracing. The contact case tracking function ends a few days before law enforcement, in order to disconnect the servers and clean up the data present, says the developer.
In July 2022, in its fifth opinion to Parliament on the “conditions for implementing measures against Covid-19”, the Cnil deemed the service of little use in the fight against the coronavirus. Even though “the invasion of privacy caused by this device is particularly low”, “the functionality of contact tracing via Bluetooth is of marginal use”said the commission.