Security News > 2020 > June > Norway Suspends Virus-Tracing App After Privacy Concerns
Norway's health authorities said on Monday they had suspended an app designed to help trace the spread of the new coronavirus after the national data protection agency said it was too invasive of privacy.
Launched in April, the smartphone app Smittestopp was set up to collect movement data to help authorities trace the spread of COVID-19, and inform users if they had been exposed to someone carrying the novel coronavirus.
Datatilsynet said the limited spread of coronavirus in Norway, as well the app's limited effectiveness due to the small number of people actually using it, meant the invasion of privacy resulting from its use was disproportionate.
Of Norway's 5.4 million inhabitants had been using the app.
Developed in Norway and downloadable on a voluntary basis, the application used centralised data storage, as is planned in France and the UK. Norway, where the coronavirus deaths totalled 242 as of last week, is now seeing only a handful of new infection cases a day.