North Macedonia launches Bluetooth-based contact tracing app

North Macedonia is the first country in the Western Balkans to launch a contact-tracing app. The government has stressed that the Bluetooth-based app, StopKorona!, complies with all legal privacy requirements. The app follows a decentralised design, so that users maintain full control over their data, which is deleted after 14 days; if they test positive for the virus they can choose to send their location history to the Ministry of Health so that their contacts can be alerted. The app was developed and donated to the Macedonian authorities by the Skopje-based software company Nextsense, which says the app was downloaded more than 5,000 times on its first day.

Source: https://balkaninsight.com/2020/04/16/north-macedonia-leads-region-in-covid-19-tracing-app/

Writer: Bojan Stojkovski
Publication: Balkan Insight