Estonia COVID-19 Mobile Application

With the HOIA mobile app, citizens can quickly find out about possible close contact with a COVID-19 infected person, allowing citizens to take steps to protect your own health and the health of others.

The app notifies you if you have been in close contact with an infected person. You can also inform others if you have become ill. By using the app, you contribute privately and securely to reducing the number of infected people.

Using the app is private and secure. The notifications sent do not tell you when, for how long and where you came in contact with an infected person, so it is not possible to identify who was the infected one.

How does HOIA function?

1. The app generates unique anonymous codes
2. Nearby phones exchange codes with each other
3. By confirming your infection with the HOIA app, the anonymous codes on the device are uploaded to a central server
4. Your phone regularly downloads anonymous codes from the infected people
5. The phone checks if you have been in close contact with an infected person
6. When a close contact is detected, the app will notify you

Feature of HOIA app

What is the HIOA mobile app?

HOIA is a mobile app that helps limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus with the help of the app users. The purpose of the app is to inform the close contacts of those infected with the coronavirus and, therefore, to provide them with initial instructions on how to proceed. In this way, the user can quickly find out about possible close contact with a COVID-19 infected person, allowing them to take steps to protect their own health and the health of others.

How does the app work?

Phones that use the app register the Bluetooth signals from other nearby phones. If the signal is sufficiently close and long enough, an anonymous code referring to a close contact will be stored in their phone. If a person now confirms their infection with the HOIA app, the anonymous codes on their device will be uploaded to a central server where all users can download them. It is not possible to identify a person based on an anonymous code. The user’s phone compares whether the infected person’s anonymous code matches a code previously stored on their phone. If so, the user is considered to be a close contact and they will be notified with instructions. It will not be revealed to the user who the infected person was with whom they were in contact with, or any other information that would allow the indirect identification of the infected person.

How does the app help to citizen protect against the virus?

Viruses such as COVID-19 can spread before symptoms occur, therefore, an infected person may spread the disease without the knowledge of themselves and others. This means that by the time the symptoms appear, the virus may have already spread to others, and it is not enough for symptomatic people to stay at home to stop the virus from spreading. Through the HOIA app, an infected person can quickly inform all people with whom they have been in close contact during the infectious period. In this way, the app users can find out about a possible infection early on and take steps to protect themselves and the health of others. By using the HOIA app, you contribute to reducing the number of infections in Estonia, regardless of whether you are infected or in close contact.

Privacy and security in HOIA app

The main function of the app is to inform and guide you if you may have been in close contact with a person infected with COVID-19. Therefore, the app uses three types of information: information on close contact, information on infection, and information on code of conduct.

1. Close contact is defined as having been in contact with the infected person for at least 15 minutes and less than 2 metres apart during the day. The phones automatically collect information about close contacts via the Bluetooth radio signals, and the interpretation of the signal into a distance is based on extensive international research carried out by Google and Apple, among others, which have developed your phone’s operating system.
2. Infection of persons is confirmed against an external source of evidence, which in Estonia are the Health Board and the Health Information System. This means that no user can signify themselves to be infected, unless they are really sick. If the phone notifies you of close contact with an infected person, you can be certain that the person who sent the notification is actually infected.
3. If you turn out to be a close contact, the instructions shown to you have been approved by the Health Board. In addition, you will be displayed the phone number of the Health Board, where you can call for more information.

The use of the HOIA app does not require that you should waive your right to privacy. The app can be used in such a way that no other user can find out about your infection or contact with the infected person. No government authority will be able to monitor any user through the app. If the app detects that you have been in close contact with an infected person, you can contact the Health Board to report it, but the Health Board will not collect this information through the app. If you turn out to be the infected one, then this information will reach the Health Board via laboratories and family doctors, not through the app.

As Bluetooth is a positioning technology, it is formally a part of Android location services. Turning on Bluetooth in an Android application will therefore require you to permit the app to use location services. We assure you that HOIA does not gather any information about your location.

HOIA sends out a notification if you have been in close contact with an infected person. This notification does not tell you who the infected was, where and for how long you were in contact with them, or when you were in contact with them. Therefore, it is not possible to identify the infected person on the basis of the notification.

The app cannot access the information on your phone (contacts, location, etc.). If you start confirming your infection through the app, the app will redirect you to the national Patient Portal, however, this portal will not return your health information to the app but will only confirm the infection to the app server in a non-personalized manner.

A short-term anonymous code is generated for each user of the app, which changes regularly. When you are close enough with another user, your phones exchange each other’s anonymous codes. In addition to the code itself, the phone saves how long it has been seen and how far the owner of the code may have been during this time (based on the strength of the Bluetooth signal). If you turn out to be the infected one, you will have the option to download your anonymous codes to the app server, where other users can also download them to compare whether or not their phone has already seen your code. The app does not collect any other information about you or your close contacts.

Source:

https://www.hoia.me/en/