France chooses centralised app design

France, like the UK, opted to develop its own contact tracing app. "StopCovid",  using a centralised design developed by the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proxity Tracing (PEPP-PT) group, which created a framework called ROBust and the privacy-presERving proximity Tracing protocol (ROBERT). French ministers have defended the decision to choose ROBERT rather than the decentralised options, DP3T or Apple's and Google's jointly developed API, saying that the app is not intended to monitor people, and that users can choose whether to share their information. The French data protection regulator, CNIL, has tentatively approved the app.

Writer: Chris O'Brien
Publication: Venture Beat