Covid-19 Contact Tracing Applications - National Strategies in Technological Terms (Bluetooth, QR Code, GPS) and Geostrategic Terms (sovereignty, use of data)

This study contains a survey of the digital contact tracing approaches deployed for COVID-19 all over the world via the benchmark of more than 50 countries (and more than 40 identified initiatives). It also analyses the choices made in the light of the underlying issues (technologies, data protection regulations, the role of private entities).

Key Findings:

• In Europe, the national responses have been mismatched and divergent, particularly concerning the question of centralised versus decentralised systems, despite the initiative of a common and centralised PEPP-PT contact tracing system.
• An almost unanimous wish to use Bluetooth in Europe (only Norway, Iceland, and Bulgaria are using GPS)
• For the time being, seven countries - all of them European - want to use decentralised Bluetooth: Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, and Estonia. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, are starting to show an interest in it.