Now those who know they are positive to the virus will be able to report it without going to a doctor: the Privacy Guarantor has decided it.
That Immuni has been a flop app despite over 10 million downloads is unfortunately a fact: its contribution in contact tracing and, consequently, in stemming the spread of the pandemic in Italy has been marginal to say the least. The fault, however, was not only of Immuni (which is not perfect and has had more than one problem of operation), but also of the system provided by law to send to the National Health Service the notification of positivity to the virus, from which starts the contact tracing.
Notification that, as it is now known, can not be made independently from the positive user but must pass by a doctor of the territorial health authority of reference. The bureaucratic step, as often happens in Italy, unfortunately, has cut the legs Immuni app but now things could change thanks to the pronouncement of the Guarantor Authority for the Protection of Personal Data.
App Immuni: what the Guarantor said
In essence, the Privacy Authority has authorized the Ministry of Health to modify Immuni. The new version, which has not yet arrived, will contain a new section through which it will be possible to independently report your own positive swab (or serological test).
The procedure involves the insertion of two data: the univocal national code (Cun) attributed by the Sistema Tessera Sanitaria to your own diagnostic test report for Covid-19, and the last 8 digits of your health card. With these data, the national Covid-19 alert system will be able to verify the positivity and load the temporary keys from the Immuni app, from which it will be able to reconstruct the recent contacts.
App Immuni: is it too late?
What many are wondering, after the decision of the Privacy Guarantor, is whether it is now too late. The contact tracing of the Coronavirus has officially been blown up since before the summer, the infections are sky-high, the deaths don't show any sign of going down and, the only good thing, the priority now is to speed up the vaccines more than the tracing.
How much the use of Immuni can grow after this pronouncement, then, is all to be discovered. Certainly, though, this is also an important decision for possible future occasions when the protection of citizens' personal data and that of their health will have to coexist.