From Monday 15 June, the Immuni app will be downloadable throughout Italy. After testing week in Abruzzo, Liguria, Marche and Puglia, the application for tracing Coronavirus infections is active throughout the country.
All users with can download it Android and Apple smartphones (be careful though, the latter will need at least iOS 13). However, the most recent Huawei smartphones that do not use Google are still blocked due to the ban established by Donald Trump. We are "working to make these smartphones compatible with the application as soon as possible", said Bending Spoons, the Milanese company that developed the Immuni app.
According to the information provided by the commissioner for the coronavirus emergency, Domenico Arcuri, to date Immuni was downloaded by 2,2 million people, while a communication campaign will start from 15 June to encourage people to download the application.
“I want to reiterate that it is anonymous and will remain so until the end of its use and that it is a fundamental component in the containment strategy of the pandemic in your country. We wanted and had to comply with the privacy requirements and took the minimum of time,” said Arcuri.
Let us remember that the app uses bluetooth low energy and not gps or wifi, precisely for the purpose of protecting the privacy of citizens. When the local health authorities or health facilities enter the code that identifies a new positive case into the system, the app sends users who have come into contact with the infected person (who obviously remains anonymous) a notification. To be recorded, the encounter must have lasted between 5 minutes and half an hour and the two subjects must have been within two meters of each other. The data collected is kept for 14 days on individual smartphones and not on a central server.
