Educating citizens on data and crypto basics

In France, the national Covid-19 tracing app is called TousAntiCovid.

Unlike the tracing apps of other similar European countries, TousAntiCovid doesn’t use the Google / Apple tracing API, but a dedicated protocol instead.

I read many arguments against this app, including:

• Some argue that it goes against their privacy rights, and that they don’t want their data to be collected by the government — as if the app was designed without any guaranty of anonymization
• Other would have preferred the government to decide to use the Google / Apple tracing API, for a more seamless integration on their device, and compatibility with other countries — as if being dependent of private big techs, and France not being able to analyze the anonymized raw data to help manage the crisis, was not an issue

TousAntiCovid seems to be a simple app for citizens, but elaborating an informed judgment about it is complex, needing at least a basic understanding of:

• cryptography: how works encryption, security protocols, privacy by design, anonymization, …
• big data: how works machine learning, why owning and processing data at scale is so strategic, and how for example big techs or social networks do it

That’s symptomatic of the new kind of political and society debates we will have to address more and more: they need a bunch of technology understanding — future generations will have to learn it early at school.