The datastart-up Esoptra from Herentals has little confidence in the national contact tracking app. CEO Alexander Carpentier launched his own application for the shop floor.
Alexander Carpentier calls the way in which the Belgian government tackles contact tracing to detect coronary infections a 'train disaster you saw coming from afar'. From the beginning it was clear that the contacts of infected patients would be traced via an app and with Bluetooth connections, while there are much better ways', says the CEO of the datastart-up Esoptra from Herentals. An app is very sensitive to privacy and the inventors of bluetooth themselves say that this technology is not suitable for mapping someone's physical contacts. If someone sits in the room next to you with their mobile phone, it is registered as a close contact, even if there is a wall between them'.
With this in mind, Esoptra developed its own application with which companies can organise anonymous contact tracing on the shop floor. Esoptra developed the Savitas application, which uses QR codes. When someone comes to the coffee machine, gets into the elevator or enters a meeting room, he can scan a QR sticker with his phone. A digital logbook of where that person checked in is then stored on the smartphone. This data is not exchanged. Only when someone is infected with corona, he can choose to signal his log data anonymously. Someone who checked in at the same time as that person at the same place will receive a warning.
People aren't automatically told if they've come into contact with an infected person. It's only when someone requests their status or scans a QR code that they see if there was a risk contact,' says Carpentier. That's how people keep the key in their own hands. There is no app or employer that keeps information about them. The intention, however, is that there will be a change of culture. Checking in at the beginning of a meeting should become as normal as shaking hands before'.
Esoptra launched the anonymous contact tracing together with the inspection company Vinçotte. It already has some twenty companies as clients and more than 11,000 QR stickers in circulation. When registration for a hospitality visit became compulsory last week, Esoptra also launched an application for this purpose. Among others the lunch chain Le Pain Quotidien uses it. Whoever comes to eat or drink something can scan a QR code and automatically receives the form to leave the requested information.
It's not an obvious time for us and we're working harder than ever,' Carpentier says. But it's also the time when we can show ourselves to new customers. Now that the fire is reigniting, employers are realising that they don't have to wait to install fire extinguishers. New waves will keep coming, and those who don't arm themselves are in danger of having to close down again'.
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The university college HOGENT rolls out Savitas QR to protect their staff and students. It is part of their plan to open up again at the start of the academic year.
There is no actual proof that Bluetooth based contact tracing actually works. Even the inventors of Bluetooth say so. So why is no one paying attention to the evidence?
Amnesty International is rightly concerned about possible privacy breaches that a contact tracing app could bring. That is why they have published a number of guidelines. However, Savitas QR as a solution fully meets their requirements. That's why we wrote them an open letter.
