Europe: Varying Degrees of Success for Virus Apps

FILE PHOTO: Florian Heretsch and Emil Voutta of the developing team of software giant SAP work on the German government official COVID-19 tracing App at the SAP headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Walldorf, Germany May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Florian Heretsch and Emil Voutta of the developing team of software giant SAP work on the German government official COVID-19 tracing App at the SAP headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Walldorf, Germany May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
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Europe: Varying Degrees of Success for Virus Apps

FILE PHOTO: Florian Heretsch and Emil Voutta of the developing team of software giant SAP work on the German government official COVID-19 tracing App at the SAP headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Walldorf, Germany May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Florian Heretsch and Emil Voutta of the developing team of software giant SAP work on the German government official COVID-19 tracing App at the SAP headquarters, as the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Walldorf, Germany May 29, 2020. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

Designed to help fight the spread of the novel coronavirus by automatically tracing the contacts of infected people, Covid-19 tracking applications have encountered a series of challenges since their launch, from privacy concerns to technical glitches.

According to AFP, here is a round-up of the main European contact tracing initiatives and their varying degrees of success.

- Germany: no cure-all -

Launched in June, the German track and trace app is seen as "an important additional tool for keeping infection rates down," but "no cure-all," according to government spokesman Steffen Seibert.
In a country whose population jealously guards security and control over their personal data, the app has generally been well-received, even by staunch privacy advocates like the Chaos Computer Club.

As of September 1, the app had been downloaded 17.8 million times -- compared with an overall population of around 83 million -- and at the start of July, it had alerted several hundreds of cases of infections.

- Iceland: keeping tracks on tourists -

Downloads of Iceland's app peaked shortly after its launch -- at an estimated 40 percent of the population, the user rate is high -- but rose again with the start of the tourist season.
Visitors to the volcanic island are encouraged to download the app, not only for its good functionality, but also because it contains links to important Covid-19-related documents and even has an online chat function.

Unlike other tracing apps in use in Europe, the Icelandic one can track an individual's movements in the case of infection or suspected infection. And, with the individual's permission, it uses GPS to geo-locate the phone.

- Portugal: compatibility issues -

Portugal only launched its tracing app this month and it has come under fire from consumer rights groups for perceived loopholes in personal data usage and the dominant role played by tech giants in drawing up health protocols.

In addition, media reports suggest around 800,000 mobile phones -- out of an overall population of 10 million -- cannot install the app because of incompatible software, ultimately rendering it useless.

- France: a flop -

The French government launched its StopCovid app at the beginning of June, but by mid-August it had only been downloaded some 2.3 million times, compared with an overall population of 67 million. So far, only 72 possible risk contacts have been flagged up by the app, while 1,169 users have declared themselves positive.

StopCovid has been criticized by IT specialists with regard to data privacy.

Based on a so-called "centralized" protocol, the French app is incompatible with the majority of its European peers which are "decentralized".

Under the centralized model, the anonymized data gathered are uploaded to a remote server where matches are made with other contacts, should a person start to develop Covid-19 symptoms.

The decentralized model gives users more control over their information by keeping it on the phone. It is there that matches are made with people who may have contracted the virus. This is the model promoted by Google, Apple and an international consortium.

- Favorable marks for Switzerland and Italy -

SwissCovid, developed by the EPFL university of Lausanne and based on the decentralized protocol, began testing on May 25.

Nearly 1.6 million people now actively use the app, which has been downloaded 2.3 million times out of a population of 8.5 million.

At the beginning of September, the app was signaling an average 56 infections every day and seems to be generally well accepted by the population.

In Italy, the Immuni app was downloaded 5.4 million times, equivalent to 14 percent of the overall number of potential users (excluding anyone under the age of 14 and people without mobile phones). According to official data, 155 users have declared themselves positive between June 1 and August 31.

- Damp squibs in Norway and Britain -

In June, the Norwegian health authorities suspended the locally developed app after the Nordic country's national data protection agency found it too intrusive.

Authorities are currently working on a solution which they hope to launch before Christmas and do not rule out resorting to Google and Apple technology.

In Britain, the government revealed its first attempt at a contact-tracing app in May.

But in a major U-turn in June, it abandoned the app, based on the centralized model and seen as flawed.

The government, which blamed the problems on restrictions imposed by Apple, has since switched to the decentralized approach. But, as yet, no track and trace app is widely available in much of the UK.

Northern Ireland, however, rolled out its own app at the end of July and it has been downloaded more than 300,000 times by August 26.



Google Hires Windsurf Execs in $2.4 Billion Deal to Advance AI Coding Ambitions

FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
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Google Hires Windsurf Execs in $2.4 Billion Deal to Advance AI Coding Ambitions

FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Google logo is seen at a company research facility in Mountain View, California, US, May 13, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File Photo

Alphabet's Google has hired several key staff members from AI code generation startup Windsurf, the companies announced on Friday, in a surprise move following an attempt by its rival OpenAI to acquire the startup.

Google is paying $2.4 billion in license fees as part of the deal to use some of Windsurf's technology under non-exclusive terms, according to a person familiar with the arrangement. Google will not take a stake or any controlling interest in Windsurf, the person added.

Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and some members of the coding tool's research and development team will join Google's DeepMind AI division, Reuters reported.

The deal followed months of discussions Windsurf was having with OpenAI to sell itself in a deal that could value it at $3 billion, highlighting the interest in the code-generation space which has emerged as one of the fastest-growing AI applications, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in June.

OpenAI could not be immediately reached for a comment.

The former Windsurf team will focus on agentic coding initiatives at Google DeepMind, primarily working on the Gemini project.

"We're excited to welcome some top AI coding talent from Windsurf's team to Google DeepMind to advance our work in agentic coding," Google said in a statement.

The unusual deal structure marks a win for backers for Windsurf, which has raised $243 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks and General Catalyst, and was last valued at $1.25 billion one year ago, according to PitchBook.

Windsurf investors will receive liquidity through the license fee and retain their stakes in the company, sources told Reuters.

'ACQUIHIRE' DEALS

Google's surprise swoop mirrors its deal in August 2024 to hire key employees from chatbot startup Character.AI.

Big Tech peers, including Microsoft, Amazon and Meta, have similarly taken to these so-called acquihire deals, which some have criticized as an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny.

Microsoft struck a $650 million deal with Inflection AI in March 2024, to use the AI startup's models and hire its staff, while Amazon hired AI firm Adept's co-founders and some of its team last June.

Meta took a 49% stake in Scale AI in June in the biggest test yet of this increasing form of business partnerships.

Unlike acquisitions that would give the buyer a controlling stake, these deals do not require a review by US antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition. Many of the deals have since become the subject of regulatory probes.

The development comes as tech giants, including Alphabet and Meta, aggressively chase high-profile acquisitions and offer multi-million-dollar pay packages to attract top talent in the race to lead the next wave of AI.

Windsurf's head of business, Jeff Wang, has been appointed its interim CEO, and Graham Moreno, vice president of global sales, will be president, effective immediately.

The majority of Windsurf's roughly 250 employees will remain with the company, which has announced plans to prioritize innovation for its enterprise clients.