COVID 19 comes monitoring software

It seems that many will follow in China's footsteps to combat the spread of COVID 19. Russia has developed and intends to launch an application to monitor diagnosed citizens. with coronavirus in an effort to monitor if they are staying at home.

According to government officials, the software is expected to be released today Thursday, as he says the BBC. The move coincides with a broader initiative between European health institutions to set up a network of interconnected monitoring applications. The United Kingdom and Germany seem to be working to provide similar solutions.

The Russian software will initially be distributed to citizens who have tested positive for COVID 19 but have left the hospital. The BBC reports that the application will request access to users' calls, location, camera, storage, network information and other data. It will be available for Android but also for iOS devices.

In February, China launched a similar app that allowed authorities to monitor contacts with people infected with the coronavirus. Subsequent reports indicate that the application was sharing user data with the police

Of course security experts have expressed their concerns, as Russia and any Russia could abuse the application to spy on millions of citizens.

"We are concerned that this application could be used to track the movements of millions of people, because it is a tool for social control," Tom Fisher, senior researcher at Privacy International, told the BBC.