Digital tracing: Sigfox offers bracelets smart health connected to the government

[ad_1]

Sigfox, an Internet of Things (IoT) specialist, offered his services to the French government in order to equip people who could be affected by covid-19 with wired wristbands.

As the date of May 11 approaches, discussions are still going on about probable digital tools used to support deconfinement. The StopCovid application is scheduled to be discussed on April 28 in the National Assembly, where it will ultimately be voted on. It could be based on the Robert protocol unveiled by the European consortium PEPP-PT. At the same time, Sigfox, specialist in the Internet of Things (IoT), would like to trace the contacts of sick people thanks to a smart health connected / electronic bracelet which does not require keeping one's smartphone permanently on oneself.

A “solution” proposed by Sigfox

As RTL reports, the Toulouse company is working on the issue. The company has already designed a prototype of the product and has started discussions with the government. These bracelets would use a low speed network called "zero G", used to send small packets of data. Sigfox assured our colleagues to benefit from network coverage "Sufficient to offer an efficient service across France and a large part of Europe". However, an agreement with Google and Apple would be required for mobile operating systems to support this network deployed by Sigfox.

For its part, the government has indicated to our colleagues that no track is excluded for the moment and claims to have received many proposals from French industrialists on tools for contact-tracing. But if the StopCovid application is already likely not to meet with great success with the population and the deputies who will have to vote on it, what about a bracelet whose only use would be to track users? Here we are far from a smart health smart health connected object used for the practice of sport, to respond to messages, to consult social networks, etc. Cédric O's office recalls that the study of these solutions is based on several principles such as respect for anonymity or use on a voluntary basis.

This track of electronic bracelets is also mentioned in Italy. There, the government would like to bring this type of device to the elderly, a population at risk in the context of this pandemic, and who uses the smartphone little. This is part of the Immuni application, equivalent to StopCovid on the other side of the Alps. Also remember that South Korea and Hong Kong use these bracelets to ensure compliance with quarantine.

Are monitoring devices less and less desired?

Overall, the craze around digital plotting applications and devices seems to be drying up. The Trace Together application, deployed in Singapore and modeled by many countries around the world, has failed to stem the spread of the coronavirus on the island. After a second wave of cases, the country ordered the extension of the confinement for a month.

In Europe, the PEPP-PT project attracted the antipathy of part of the cybersecurity community after the publication of the Robert protocol, giving too much space to a centralized server compared to the DP3T project. Several European entities have also withdrawn from the project.

In Belgium, Minister Philippe De Backer said that the government is currently ruling out the development of an application for contact-tracing. Finally, California, the land of technological solutionism par excellence, relies on human tracers rather than on smartphones. The state plans to deploy a small army of 10,000 people to monitoring the spread of the virus.

[ad_2]