Tracking and tracing citizen movements in response to the coronavirus

23.4.2020

Question for written answer  E-002473/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Patrick Breyer (Verts/ALE)

• 1.Can the Commission confirm research [1] that demonstrates that tracing apps intended to reduce the number of infected agents are less effective than conducting random testing, and can it confirm that their deployment would result in a sharp increase in the number of agents that need testing?
• 2.Does it agree that citizens who do not receive warning messages should be tested, and that tracing apps are recommended when testing abilities are insufficient?
• 3.The general and indiscriminate collection of anonymised location data provided by mobile phone operators allows public authorities to identify all public and non-public meetings. Does the Commission agree that establishing such a database creates the potential for crowd control, especially as law enforcement and intelligence authorities can identify the participants of detected meetings by requesting individualised communications data?

• [1] https://simassocc.org/scenario-effect-of-tracktrace-apps/