Norway COVID-19 Mobile Application

Smittestopp is an app from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Folkehelsesinstituttet (FHI) in Norwegian). The app is intended to help prevent coronavirus from spreading among the population and is completely voluntary and safe to use. You must be 16 or older to use the app.

Privacy in Smittestopp app

The app is based on technology from Apple and Google. Safeguarding privacy was a very important factor during the development of the app. Here are some examples of how your data is protected:

• To ensure that who you are and where you have been cannot be identified, random ID keys are continually t via Bluetooth.
• The information which is transmitted from phones you have been near is stored securely and only on your phone. This means no other app users or public authorities have access to information on who you have been near or who you are.
• It is up to each individual to decide whether they want to download and use the app. You can also choose to delete data, disable the app, or delete it from your phone altogether.
• Smittestopp does not collect personal data about you, nor does it have any associated access service.

How Smittestopp app works?

If you have tested positive, you register this in the app yourself. This is voluntary, and nobody else can see who has registered as infected.

To let other Smittestopp users know you are infected:

1. On the app’s home screen, tap “Have you tested positive?”. You will then be prompted to log in via “ID-porten”. You must do this to confirm that you have tested positive. If you suspect you have coronavirus but have not been tested, you cannot share this through the app.
2. If you have experienced any coronavirus symptoms, you may enter what time the symptoms started. This will enable the app to determine who needs to be notified of the infection risk.
3. Finally, you will be asked if you want to share what are known as “ID-keys”. Your phone has sent these to other phones during the past 14 days. If your answer yes, the relevant people will be notified via the app. You remain anonymous at all times.

You will find out the test result from the municipality in which you live. You can also log in to Helsenorge and check your results via the test result service.

Feature of Smittestopp app

Notification

• You will receive a notification via the app on your phone. The app does not send text messages.
• In Smittestopp, you will receive a notification telling you that you have been near an infected person and that you will be sent guidelines and advice.
• Remember that you may still have been near someone who does not use the app.
• In the app, you will be given recommendations on what to do next.
• When you register as infected in the Smittestopp app, the app will send a notification to everyone that you have had close enough contact with during the relevant period. It will do this only once a day. Members of your household, or healthcare professionals who are close to you after you have gone into isolation, will not be notified later.
• On Android phones, you are prompted to enable location, because Android blocks apps from accessing Bluetooth unless location services are enabled. Smittestopp does not need your location and does not collect or use it. The Google-Apple framework also prevents phones with tracking apps installed from using this in the app.

Differences between the new and old Smittestopp apps

Apart from the identical name, the two apps have almost nothing in common. The new Smittestopp app is a brand new technological solution which differs from the old one in the following ways:

• The new app stores everything on your phone and does not upload information to a central location as the old one did.
• The new app uses Bluetooth and not GPS or any other satellite positioning systems. This way, it does not store data on where you have been.
• The new app uses far less battery power than the old one.
• The new app is only used for infection tracking, and not analysis or research.
• The new app does not collect data which can be used to identify you, so there is no data to gain access to.
• The new app does not automatically message other people. You do this yourself when and if you want to.

Smittstopp and other countries’ infection tracking apps

You can both give and receive notification that you have been near someone who has been diagnosed with coronavirus in the EU and EEA, regardless of what kind of national infection tracking app they use. This only works if you get tested and report an infection from your own country, for example if you have returned home from a trip abroad.

Sharing data with other countries is voluntary, and you will be asked to consent to this if you report being infected. If you are notified that you have been near an infected person, the app works as normal. You will see who it is or where the person was infected, and your consent is therefore not necessary for receiving notofications.

Exchange of data

Several European countries have developed their own infection tracking apps based on the Apple-Google framework, which Smittestopp uses. Exchange of data is done through a common European server. All countries are jointly responsible for the information exchanged.

Participating countries

The countries that are currently connected to the pan-European server that exchanges data between the apps are Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Lativa, Poland, Cyprus, Croatia, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands, and Belgium.

The app does not in any way record information about where you have been, neither with GPS nor with any other technology.

Source:

https://www.helsenorge.no/en/smittestopp/