ZAGREB, November 20, 2020 – Cross-border sharing of data collected by Croatia’s mobile application “Stop COVID 19” and data collected by other EU member-states’ official applications was established on Thursday, the Croatian government said on its website on Thursday.
After Croatia’s experts developed the application, it was underscored that tracking the contacts of people infected with Covid-19 by mobile phones is a voluntary epidemiological measure with strict respect for privacy and that it will depend on the epidemiological situation.
Data sharing practices in this field are in line with decisions and recommendations of the European Commission, the E-Zdravstvo (E-Health) service, and other European bodies.
Croatia has become the seventh EU member that can share data on ”infected keys”. The other six countries are Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Spain.
The EC says on its website that “tracing and warning apps can help break the chain of coronavirus infections, nationally and across borders, and save lives by complementing manual tracing.”
Most Member States have launched a national contact tracing and warning app which can be used on a voluntary basis.
“The virus does not stop at borders. Therefore, in addition, the Member States, together with the Commission, have set up a new service to allow national apps to talk to each other across borders in Europe, so users will have to install a unique App which will allow them to be warned if they were in contact with someone who has indicated that they have tested positive for COVID-19.”
Contact tracing and warning apps are only used voluntarily, based on Bluetooth proximity technology, respect users’ privacy and do not enable the tracking of people’s locations.
