European coalition develops ‘privacy-preserving’ technology for contact tracing

An EU consortium led by Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for telecoms is working on smartphone proximity-tracing tools that comply with EU privacy rules. The newly unveiled Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) makes it possible to prevent further transmission of COVID-19 by informing potentially exposed people. 

The PEPP-PT project has published a manifesto explaining its intention to assist national initiatives to hinder the spread of the Coronavirus. According to the manifesto, these technologies are ‘well-tested’ and ensure ‘secure data anonymisation’ and ‘cross border interoperability’.