[Japon] Glitches and design flaws limit value of Japan’s COVID-19 tracing app

Auteur : Tomohiro Osaki. Staff writer de The Japan Times.

Production : The Japan Times

Diffusion : site de The Japan Times

Date : 1er février 2021

Digital contact tracing is becoming increasingly crucial in Japan, where the third wave of COVID-19 infections is overwhelming contact tracers at public health centers and testing their capacity to the limits. Some of these facilities are now marshaling their contact-tracing workforce toward a tiny pool of patients deemed particularly high risk, leaving the vast majority of cases at the mercy of a state-developed tracing app known as the Contact-Confirming Application (COCOA).

Source : Tomohiro Osaki, « Glitches and design flaws limit value of Japan’s COVID-19 tracing app », The Japan Times, 01/02/2021. URL : https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/02/01/national/science-health/cocoa-tracing-troubles/ (consulté le 02/02/2021)

Photo « à la une » : Unlike some of its more authoritarian peers, Japan’s contact-tracing app does not allow the government to centralize data, use GPS to track people, or harvest information such as phone numbers and names. © GETTY IMAGES