Cwa-wishlist: Enable Labs to automatically warn if there is a positive test result

[ggjj11]

At the moment corona tests need to be scanned in by the person who was tested. This does not happen all the time - it would be desirable if the upload of the test result happened automatically after the test result is available. This would also speed up the detection of infection chains.

To enable labs to link the test with an instance of the corona app each test should have a unique QR code which is (voluntarily) scanned by the app owner prior to submission of the sample to the lab. This way the lab can upload the test directly (instead of waiting for the test results being sent to the person who installed the app and this person needing to scan the QR code of the test).
If the default request is to please scan the QR code of the test prior to submission much more people will do it! This is the power of defaults! https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions/up-next

[thomasaugsten]

The test result is already uploaded automatically by the lab when the result is available independent of the scanning of the user because he gave already the consent on the form. The user can scan the QR code to access this saved result. If the test result is not available the user needs to wait, but the app will try to fetch the result every 2hours in the background.

[ggjj11]

To my understanding the test result cannot be used to identify infection chains before the user scans some additional QR code after the test result is available. Am I right here?
In the case that I am right, I propose that the QR code is scanned prior to testing instead of after the result of the test is available. This would speed up the detection of infection chains.

[thomasaugsten]

To identify infection chain we need the diagnoses keys from the user device. The user needs to share this manually because Apple and Google will show a popup to the user before we can access the diagnoses keys. This is not related to the QR Code or test result

[ggjj11]

So I suggest to share voluntarily the "diagnoses keys from the user device" of the past with the corona test which is being sent to the lab and not wait with the sharing till the test result is available.

[ndegendogo]

@ggjj11 actually, this is not what I want.
It means that I share all my contacts, just because I take a test, even if it turns out negative later.
This is worse than a centralized system, it violates the need-to-know principle and "Daten-Sparsamkeit".

cwa was intentionally designed as decentral system.
And even in a centalized system (which we don't have), it would be the health authorities (not the labs) that would be eligible to access the "social graph" of all contacts of all participating users.

[ggjj11]

Of course this sharing of user device data prior to test submission should be done voluntarily, but it should be the default with the ability to opt-out.

[ndegendogo]

@ggjj11 such a feature has a very high potential to knock number of users down

[ggjj11]

https://www.atse.org.au/news-and-events/article/why-we-should-consider-making-the-coronavirus-tracking-app-opt-out/

[ndegendogo]

@ggjj11 Thanks for your link.

Actually, the linked article proposes something very different. They propose to make usage of the app as default with opt-out on all supporting smartphones.

And also this I don't want.
If I look at the surveys about usage of the German app, I see not one peak of "undecided / don't-care" people, but clearly two peaks; people who want to use it, and people who don't want to. And IMO the adoption numbers in Germany are not so bad.

By the way, do you have any numbers that back-up your claim (e.g. that significant number of infected users are currently not sending their keys but wouldn't mind to do so)? Or is it just 'gut-feeling'?
I would love to see more numbers ...

[ggjj11]

Exact statistics are not available. These are some numbers (see also the links) which indicates that only around 60% of corona positive people share their data (meaning 40% do not share). https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.connect.de/news/amp/corona-warn-app-gemeldete-faelle-infizierte-positiv-zahlen-schaetzung-3200916.html
Please, please if you have more accurate data share with us!

[ndegendogo]

@ggjj11 Thanks for the links and the numbers.

only around 60% of corona positive people share their data

This number needs more explanation. What exactly is 100% here?
(And this is clearly not your fault, just to avoid any misunderstandings - I'll open a new question for it).

[MikeMcC399]

@ndegendogo

What exactly is 100% here?

The explanation on https://www.coronawarn.app/assets/documents/2020-10-23-cwa-facts-and-figures.pdf is:

"Erläuterung: Im Zeitraum vom 1. September bis 21. Oktober 2020
wurden insgesamt 25700 positive Testergebnisse verifiziert - via QR-Code oder teleTAN - dies ist die Anzahl der potenziell teilbaren positiven Ergebnisse. Anschließend haben sich 15453, d.h. 60 Prozent der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer dafür entschieden, ihr positives Testergebnis mit den anderen Nutzerinnen und Nutzern zu teilen. Nur so kann eine Risiko-Benachrichtigung der Nutzerinnen und Nutzer erfolgen, mit denen die Corona-positive Person epidemiologisch relevante Begegnungen hatte."

I think that is what you are looking for.

Edit: Currently the RKI reports - Übersicht zu aktuellen und früherer Zahlen und Fakten zur Corona-Warn-App" are more up-to-date than the ones on the CWA blog entry. I logged a website issue #534 for this.

[heinezen]

I think we can close this issue because the automatic upload of test result from lab->app was already implemented in the app's backend. For a discussion about opt-out of uploading keys, https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-wishlist/issues/284 should be better place.

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Corona-Warn-App Open Source Team