Covid-19: EU privacy watchdog calls for pan-European mobile app for virus tracking

The initiative, called Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT), brings together more than 130 researchers from eight countries and broadly follows the approach taken by Singapore's TraceTogether app (pic). — Reuters

BRUSSELS: The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) called on Monday for a pan-European mobile app to track the spread of the new coronavirus instead of the current hodge-podge of apps used in various EU countries which could breach people's privacy rights.

Faced with thousands of coronavirus-related deaths, governments across Europe have rolled out or plan to launch phone-tracking apps to trace people who came into contact with those infected and to monitor people under quarantine.