Covid-19 Pandemic

Wednesday, 30 September 2020

Questions (216)

Emer Higgins

Question:

216. Deputy Emer Higgins asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 812 of 22 September 2020, if other countries such as Denmark are using an app to record the number of close contacts a user has daily; if consideration will be given to changing the app used here in order that the keys that are shared between phones are randomised once a day in the middle of the night to preserve the protection of privacy while allowing the app to record the number of close contacts a user has daily; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27419/20]

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Written answers

Minister for Health

Further to Parliamentary Question number 812 of 22 September 2020, while Denmark did consider using their app to record the number of close contacts a user has on a daily basis during the development of their app, they did not proceed with this functionality in the final design. Similar to Ireland, Denmark were of the view that recording the number of close contacts a user has on a daily basis can not be implemented without compromising the privacy preserving nature of the app. From engagement with the European Commission on contact tracing apps in the EU, officials from my Department are not aware of any other country that has implemented the functionality proposed by the Deputy for the reasons outlined above.