Covid-19: France, Germany in standoff with Silicon Valley on contact tracing

A rift has opened up between countries led by France and Germany that want to hold personal data on a central server, and others that back the decentralised approach espoused by Apple and Google in which Bluetooth logs are stored on individual devices. — Reuters

PARIS/BERLIN: A standoff between the two largest nations in the European Union and Silicon Valley escalated on April 24 as Apple and Google rebuffed demands by France and Germany to back their approach to using smartphone technology to trace coronavirus infections.

Countries are rushing to develop apps to assess the risk that one person can infect another with the coronavirus, helping to isolate those who could spread the Covid-19 disease.