This week, the German government together with SAP and the Telekom presented the COVID-19 tracing app. To be honest, I am suprised how the whole process went. The documentation and source-code is fully available online. SAP and the Telekom processed valuable feedback from experts.

Only the costs of nearly 20 milion Euro stand out. But if such an app needs to developed asap, logically, companies will charge higher fees as usual.

Linus Neumann from the CCC gave an extensive interview, where he elaborates on how secure the app is.

We can conclude that there are no obious security and privacy risks for the citiziens when using the app. I am curious how many citizens will install the app, and how it will help to tackle the pandemic in the next months. As I am living in the Netherlands, however, there is no need of installing the German app here.

This leads me to my next thought: Why is there not a COVID-19 tracing app initiative on EU-level? And should other countries, like the Netherlands, not just use the Germans approach, and subsequently, they just need to modify the source-code for their purposes?