Experts: despite negative advice, corona apps still made it through selection – update

ICT experts and interest groups are very concerned about the haste with which the government wants to build corona apps. The experts assessed several apps negatively, but they were still allowed by the ministry until the final selection.

The experts point to the seven development proposals that were presented by the government on Friday afternoon. These are proposals for apps that include contact tracing to curb the coronavirus. The government wants to see further elaboration of the plans from seven developers this weekend. In recent days, experts have assessed dozens of apps for security, privacy-friendliness, feasibility and other factors. They often gave negative advice. That negative advice also occurred with apps that were now in the final selection that was presented on Friday. That would have happened, for example, at Sia Partners, which wants to create an app based on the Trace Together app from Singapore. Experts tell de Volkskrant that the app was rejected on privacy grounds. “It is incomprehensible that Sia is now on the list,” a source told the newspaper. The experts say they have “no idea” how the list came about. According to them, the assessment process was chaotic and fraught with technical difficulties. As a result, in many cases, experts were given no more than half an hour to study proposals. ICT expert Brenno de Winter tells BNR that many parties were unable to indicate how privacy is guaranteed. “It almost smells like mismanagement,” he tells the station.

Several civil rights organizations have since spoken out against the trial. Bits of Freedom and the Civil Rights Platform, among others, are sounding the alarm on the site Veiligtegencorona.nl. The organizations there already published a manifesto, which was also signed by scientists and other experts. The group drew up a list of requirements that they believed the corona apps had to meet. Part of that group is now calling for ‘going back to the drawing board’, whereby the social benefit of the app must first and foremost come first. “Signals from experts who took part in a consultation in recent days that saw a large list of proposals submitted have been deeply disturbing,” the group writes. “The enormous haste with which the process was initiated in many ways undermined an already shaky confidence. The predetermined agenda was unnegotiable and process questions in between were not answered.” The group says it has no confidence in the corona app in advance.

Update: Nine experts who were on the selection committee now say in a letter that they do not endorse the ministry’s conclusions. “Some of us feel compelled to express our concerns today about the progress of making a contribution”, write Wilma Haan, Roel Dobbe and Jelle Visser in addition to Brenno de Winter. “Contrary to what the press release from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport suggests, we cannot commit ourselves to the results on the basis of our professional integrity. We call on the Ministry to review its working method.”