German coronavirus app under fire over operating problems

Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s official app for tracking coronavirus cases did not function properly or even at all on millions of Android smartphones over a period of weeks, according to a media report, prompting outcry from political parties on Friday.

“It really is rather negligent of the Health Ministry to apparently hide the fact that there was no warning [app function] for a long time for various devices,” Frank Sitta, deputy head of the economically liberal Free Democrats’ (FDP) group in parliament.

The Corona-Warn-App, as it is known, works by anonymously alerting users if they have come into contact with someone who has reported a coronavirus infection to the app.

However, many Android phone users did not receive such a warning, or if they did it came much later, the mass-circulation Bild tabloid reported on Thursday.

The problem was that a continual background update function was automatically deactivated when the app wasn’t open – which the operating system did to save battery power.

Jens Zimmerman, digital policy spokesman for the Social Democrats (SPD), called on Health Minister Jens Spahn to explain himself in comments to the Handelsblatt business daily.

“It is more than irritating that the politicians responsible in this area had to learn of this from the media. I would have hoped for more open communication from the Health Ministry,” Zimmerman said.

The SPD is in a broad coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), of which Spahn is a member.

His ministry has since stressed that the app functioned “at all times” and that the problem with background updates was down to the Android settings, which could hamper any app.

The problem is said to have been fixed with a new version released on Wednesday.

In response to the Bild report, the ministry said the problem had been identified some time ago and that it was explained in a section of the app for frequently asked questions. This is said to explain how to keep the background updates running.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), a government agency for disease control which developed the app together with software firm SAP, reported in mid-July that the app had been downloaded around 16 million times in the month since it was released.