'For the sole purpose of tracing people who have come into contact with people with Coronavirus and protecting their health through prevention measures laid down in the context of public health measures linked to the Covid-19 emergency, the Ministry of Health has set up a platform for tracing close contacts between subjects who, for this purpose, have downloaded, on a voluntary basis, a special application on their mobile phone '.
This is an extract from the decree Bonafede - approved overnight by the Council of Ministers - dedicated to the use of the Immuni app.
The advances on mandatory and punishable conditions have been confirmed: the installation will be at the discretion of the citizen and there will be no consequence for who will choose not to use it - no travel limitations for those who do not demonstrate that they have installed it (node that seemed pending). In essence, what was communicated today by the Minister of Innovation Paola Pisano is ratified. In a hearing with the Public Works Commission of the Senate he had in fact set (by teleconference) the five fundamental conditions to which the platform must comply:
Some of the anticipations about obligation and punishability have been confirmed. Each citizen will decide whether to install the app or not, and there will be no consequence for those who decide not to use it - No limitations in movements for those who do not demonstrate having installed it (that seemed to be a crux pending). Essentially, what was communicated today by the Minister of Innovation Paola Pisano is ratified. During the Commission Public Works of the Senate (on conference call) she ruled that the platform has to comply with five fundamental conditions:
1) the entire integrated contact tracing system is entirely managed by one or more public entities and its code is open to and subject to review by any independent body that wants to study it;
2) all data processed for the purpose are anonymous in order to prevent identification of the person concerned;
3) the decision to use the technological solution is freely taken by individual citizens;
4) once the aim has been reached, all the data, wherever and in any form they are stored, with the exception of aggregated and fully anonymous data for research or statistical purposes, are deleted with an absolute guarantee for all citizens, in front of public and private entities, to be in the same condition they were before the app usage;
5) the solution adopted - in its technological and non-technological components - can be considered, at least in a prognostic dimension, effectively effective on the epidemiological level.
Minister Pisano explains that the Immuni source code will be strictly open source (accessible to all) and that no geolocation data will be collected (another concern of users). The app will only record random codes (ie randomly generated by the system) sent via Bluetooth from the sources with which they come into contact. A very precise but respectful survey of privacy.
Immuni will therefore report a contact at risk, but not where this contact took place, and - very important - at the time of the first configuration it will not require authorization to access the address book (common for most similar apps) nor the phone number to send a confirmation text message to. Forthermore, Minister Pisano categorically states that a code that allows to trace the user's identity and sensitive data will never be generated.
Another condition set by the Minister and confirmed by the decree concerns the entirely Italian character of production and management. The analysis of the source code and its sharing, the administration of the data, the diffusion of the application in the virtual stores and the technical maintenance 'will involve public companies participated by the State (PagoPA and Sogei)' in collaboration with the same Ministry of Innovation.
