This week, the federal government’s Corona Warning app was launched. It is designed to help track infection chains and warn people early if they have had contact with proved infected people. It is a voluntary mean of the government for private individuals. Inscribe, on the other hand, supports companies and businesses in the implementation of national regulations and enables a simple, secure and data protection-compliant way to retain personal data for contact tracking.
Traceability of infection chains and containment of spread are currently particularly important
Many people become infected with COVID-19 without even realizing it. Even if no symptoms are yet apparent, those infected are potentially contagious to their environment. In some people, even the entire course of the disease proceeds without any apparent symptoms.
Since 11 May 2020, many industries have been obliged to record personal data of their customers and to keep them for four weeks in order to ensure that the relaxations surrounding the COVID-19 measures are made safe and can be detected as completely as possible.
This means that the health department asks infected people about their contact persons and whereabouts in the last few weeks. The direct contact persons and locations with which the demonstrably infected persons have been in contact will be informed of the possibility of contagion.
Businesses, local businesses and organisations are then obliged to provide the health board with the previously collected personal data from the day on which the contact existed, so that infection chains can be interrupted and spread contained. Inscribe digitizes this entire process – but more on that later.
Federal government's official Corona Warning App as Early Warning System
The Federal Government’s Corona Warning app is an app that relies on Bluetooth technology and can be voluntarily installed on your own smartphone. It is intended to warn people at an early stage if they have been in contact with those who have been shown to be infected.
The smartphones use the app to exchange temporary identification keys via Bluetooth without providing direct conclusions about the smartphone’s owner. If a user of the app is tested positive for the virus, he/she will include this information in his profile.
This allows all persons in the immediate vicinity to be warned if they have been exposed to a risk of contagion. This means that users of the app will be informed as soon as they have been in the immediate vicinity with a demonstrably infected person for a long time. But what is the difference between the Corona warning app and the Inscribe digital guest list?
Inscribe, on the other hand, supports companies and companies in the required data protection-compliant management of guest and visitor lists
With Inscribe, companies from all industries have the opportunity to digitize data collection for the health department. Visitors, guests and participants scan the QR code, which is individually generated for the location, with their smartphone and can thus leave their personal data contactless.
The data of the persons present are stored encrypted in compliance with data protection and protected from the prying eyes of third parties. As soon as the person leaves the location, they can check out again via their smartphone. If this is forgotten, individual times can be set according to which the persons are considered to be automatically checked out. This gives an exact time window as to whether the persons were in a risk of infection.
The data is kept encrypted and can only be retrieved with a private access key. After the prescribed retention obligation of 30 days, all data will be deleted automatically. In addition, in the case of contact tracking, with just one click and secure verification of the service provider, a complete list of potential contact persons can be made available to the health board in compliance with GDPR. With Inscribe, additional costs and costs on the part of the companies can be kept to a minimum.
"Publicly available lists, disinfection of pens, manual sorting by date and time, and retention of documents are omitted."
– Oliver Hüttig, CEO COCUS AG
"Publicly displayed lists, disinfecting pens, hand sorting by date and time, and document storage are all eliminated."
– OLIVER HÜTTIG, CEO COCUS AG
