StopCOVID (France)
While countries like Australia have been quietly doing the best they can with their own apps, in developing its StopCOVID app, France has attempted to pillory Apple as being the bad guy for not being willing to help out by loosing the restrictions on the iPhone that would allow its own app to work properly.
According to French officials, Apple is “not helping out” with its own contact tracing efforts, despite the fact that Apple and Google have already released an Exposure Notification API that France simply doesn’t want to use.
This is because StopCOVID goes beyond simply recording contact tracing data on each user’s individual iPhone. France wants to be able to create a central government database that will allow them to keep track of every iPhone user in the country and who they have come into contact with. However, France is annoyed because the security and privacy restrictions that Apple has baked into iOS means that StopCOVID only works when the iPhone is unlocked and the app is actively running, meaning that the French government won’t be able to collect nearly as much data as it would like.