{"id":36132,"date":"2020-04-23T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T07:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/?p=36132"},"modified":"2020-04-25T13:24:12","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T11:24:12","slug":"big-brother-knows-and-still-icelanders-are-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unric.org\/en\/big-brother-knows-and-still-icelanders-are-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Big brother knows and still Icelanders are happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost 40% of Icelanders have downloaded a tracing app launched by the health inspectorate to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. 136,000 smart-phone owners have downloaded the app in Iceland which has a population of 360,000.<\/p>\n

This amounts to roughly 25 million British or French, 32 million Germans or 125 million Americans downloading an app that could possibly permit authorities to trace all physical movements of at least one member of each family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are continuing to urge people to download the app since we are convinced that the tracing of infections is a key to success,\u201c Alma M\u00f6ller Iceland\u00b4s Director of Health told a press conference.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), case finding and contact tracing are among the fundamental elements of the response to COVID-19. \u201cCountries that continue finding and testing cases and tracing their contacts not only protect their own people, they can also affect what happens in other countries and globally,\u201d WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a Press Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The app helps to analyse the user\u2019s travel and trace movements in relation to those of other people when cases of infection or suspected infection arise.<\/p>\n

If the owner of a phone shows symptoms of COVID-19 authorities asks if s\/he is willing to provide access to the GPS-data. With the owner\u2019s permission their movements can be traced.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn practice we use this to refresh people\u00b4s memories,\u201d Police Superintendent \u00c6var P\u00e1lmi P\u00e1lmason, told UNRIC in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases people have told us they travelled from one end of the country to the other on a Saturday when the app tells us they travelled on a Friday.\u201d This of course radically changes the tracing effort.<\/p>\n

Infected persons are interviewed about their contacts with others. \u201cLet\u00b4s say that someone has bought a take-away coffee. We will then contact the caf\u00e9, and try to find out if the 2 metre distance has been respected, if there has been touching etc. and in some cases people have to be put into quarantine,\u201d P\u00e1lmason says.<\/p>\n

But how have authorities managed to convince such a large percentage of the population to download an app?<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

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96% trust<\/strong><\/p>\n

The answer is simple: trust and transparence.<\/p>\n

Iceland came on top with 96% in a recent international survey on trust in the authorities\u2019 actions in fighting COVID-19. Most commentators agree that\u00a0 a key to this is the Government decision to hand-over all communications to a triumvirate of senior health and civil defence officials.<\/p>\n

The tracing app was the initiative of a group of private sector software programming companies which was donated pro-bono to health authorities.<\/p>\n

Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, Member of Parliament for the Pirate party, a software programmer by training and a critic of \u201cbig data\u201d said he was initially very sceptical of the initiative.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter some back-and-forth with the health inspectorate I was provided with the coding, and I was convinced that the necessary measures have been taken so that authorities can only access information with the permission of each individual,\u201d Gunnarsson told UNRIC.<\/p>\n

Icelanders are among the world\u00b4s most enthusiastic users of social-media and the internet in general. \u201cMost people already have such a tracing app on their smart-phones,\u201c quipped Matth\u00edas Kristiansen, a teacher. \u201cIt\u00b4s called Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis app is not going to gather any information about you that Facebook and Google don\u2019t already \u00a0possess,\u201d agreed journalist Hj\u00f6rd\u00eds \u00c1rnad\u00f3ttir.<\/p>\n

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Apps to warn of proximity to the infected<\/strong><\/p>\n

South-Korea and Singapore have been pioneers in the use of tracing apps. There is, however, a fundamental difference since they allow individuals to see how close they are to where a confirmed COVID-19 patient has been.\u00a0This is also the aim of the \u201cStopCovid\u201d app currently being designed by French authorities.<\/p>\n

Norway introduced the app \u201cSmitstopp\u201d last week. The new app will not only help the Government track the spread of COVID-19, but will also notify the users of the app if they have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally think that as many as possible have to download the app, if we are to have our freedom and our everyday life restored to us,\u201d said Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway. She also said that it is voluntary to download the app, but if many decide to use it, Norway may roll back measures taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 even sooner.<\/p>\n

The introduction of the app in Norway has been more controversial than in Iceland. The difference is that Norwegian authorities collect the GPS of the movements from the smartphones and store them centrally for 30 days.<\/p>\n

The widely read newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) supported the app \u201chesitatingly\u201d in an editorial but said it preferred a solution where the information was kept on the users\u00b4s phone instead of a central data bank. \u201cSuch a solution would be safe-guard individual privacy better. The central collection of information is the most problematic aspect of the app of the public health institute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google and Apple have announced their joint efforts in creating this kind of app. In Sweden it is anticipated that the app could be used to warn of the proximity of an infected person.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will surely, little by little, be in a position where tracing will become important to catch the last cases. Then such technology will be useful,\u201d Anders Tegnell, Sweden\u00b4s chief epidemiologist, told a press conference.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the tracing of the last cases of COVID-19 seem to be quite far-away.<\/p>\n

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Additional links:<\/strong><\/p>\n