Cross-border availability of the app

[pdehaye]

Reading over issues in the Android repo made me think, particularly https://github.com/DP-3T/dp3t-app-android-ch/issues/52 .

What is the availability of the SwissCovid iOS app for crossborder users? Will it be available in the German, French or Italian App Stores? Or will those users be required to switch stores? (and what might the consequences be for them?)

[rachyandco]

There is a similar issue on the German iOs app https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/issues/623

[r-r-liu]

A related question: Living in Basel, Switzerland, I often find myself on the other side of the border, in Germany or France. I understand I cannot download those apps, as I am registered in the Swiss App Store. But are the Swiss and, say, German COVID-19 apps compatible to the extent that my Swiss app would exchange hash codes with the German app, but would not be able to download contacts uploaded by infected users of the German app? If those contact were to somehow be uploaded to the Swiss backend, would the Swiss app process them properly?

[UBaggeler]

SwissCovid is available to all AppStore users in all countries. Currently apps from different countries do not exchange IDs yet, but there is at least one initiative going on to allow for this use-case within Europe.

[mosea3]

Mr Sang Il Kim, Head of Digital Developments at FOPH stated in a press conference to roll out country-interoperability by August.

[r-r-liu]

@mosea3

Thanks. Yes, in fact I watched that press conference on TV. I'm trying to get it clear in my mind how much compatibility is built into the GAEN API. Suppose S is using the Swiss app and G the German one, and they have a contact where both apps operate. Will S's app recognize and record G's app's beacons? If G is subsequently diagnosed positive and uploads the EphID's that he broadcast during the time that he was infectious to the German backend, I understand that S's app will not be able to access the German backend, and hence cannot be warned. But is, technically, all that is needed on the Swiss backend a copy of the EphID's that G uploaded to the German backend, or must some kind of conversion be made?

[mosea3]

Mr Kim was my professor, Ill drop him that question on occasion.

Im also curious how cross country dp3t looks like.

[r-r-liu]

Thanks, Andy. I am immensely impressed with DP-3T, especially the way privacy and data protection were designed in from the start, instead of added on at the end, almost like an afterthought. The determination to prevent "function creep" is also something that I have not often seen in my thirty-five years in IT in the Swiss pharmaceutical and banking sectors.

[UBaggeler]

Exchanging the keys of the various countries between the backends will be enough to support this use-case. We are currently considering how to publish them (for example grouped by country) to allow users to specify which keys from which countries should be synced.

[r-r-liu]

Thanks. Just as one would expect. I guess the real problem is, a German using the German app in Basel will know that he has to sync Swiss keys, but so many Germans visit and even commute to work in Basel, even users of the Swiss app who live in Basel are likely to forget that they should sync German keys.

[r-r-liu]

@UBaggeler Do you have any further information on SwissCovid being able exchange uploaded encounters with the German app? I understand that the first tests are underway for apps of EU countries to do so.

[UBaggeler]

I can only comment on the technical side: We're making progress connecting dp3t with other countries through hubs. Whether and when SwissCovid will be able to join which hub depends on political negotiations.

[r-r-liu]

Considering how this past Sunday's votes went, it's time the political powers that be perceive the damage that the inability of the Swiss app to exchange data with other European apps will cause. Why would somebody who is worried enough about his health that he has installed his national Covid app decide to vacation in Switzerland in preference to another European country whose app exchanges data with his?

[mosea3]

To conclude, cross-country availability is not possible due to A ISO Level 9 Problem - Poltics. The EU wont accept prior an insitutional agreement EU-CH which is not to be expected soon.

As I personally was tested positive, I asked for a swisscovid code. Tracking concluded and then a friend called the german hotline (its restricted to germany) to issue a german TAN fot the corona warn app for me.

This effort is the minimum you can you individually to protect others.

close

[r-r-liu]

Andy,

Thanks. Let me see whether I understand what goes on underneath the SwissCovid and Covid Warn apps. Regardless of which of these apps is selected in Settings > Exposure Notifications > Active Region, it's the EN "stuff" running in iOS that is doing all the exchanging and logging of the EphIDs. Whatever app is configured will synchronize with its respective backend. So if I as a Swiss travel to Freiburg i. B., I don't need to change the app in the Settings. But since my phone will be exchanging EphIDs with phones running Covid Warn, I'll need to synchronize with the German backend regularly. I can do that just by installing and running Covid Warn. As long as SwissCovid is running, will it take all EphIDs synchronized by either backends into account, or is there some way for it do distinguish the backend from which they came? And what about the reverse situation? When the German app calculates my risk exposure, it might use a different algorithm than SwissCovid (does it?), but does it also take EphIDs synchronized with the Swiss backend? Of course, as you describe, there are added wrinkles when I test positive and have to upload EphIDs to two backends.