Are you planning a trip to Italy? If yes, then don’t forget to download the Immuni app- an italian app for tracking and breaking the chains of infection. With this, you can protect yourself and your loved ones, as well, while traveling in times of Covid. This Corona-Warn-App tracks the encounters of people and informs users about a possible SARS-CoV-2 risk contact.

Immuni is the official exposure notification application of the Italian government, developed by the Extraordinary Commissioner for the COVID-19 Emergency, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Innovation, Technology, and Digitization. In the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, the application aims to notify users at risk of carrying the virus as soon as possible, even when they are asymptomatic. By receiving an early warning, these users can also contact their general practitioner immediately and reduce the risk of serious consequences.

Immuni is an app developed by the Milanese company Bending Spoons spa, chosen by the government following an open and public call. After choosing Immuni, on April 16, 2020, the Extraordinary Commissioner for the Covid-19 emergency, Domenico Arcuri, signed the 10-2020 Ordinance, which stipulates the contract with the company, providing for the free granting of the license to use the app. 

First of all, three features of the app favored Immuni: 

• Its ability to promptly contribute to the virus’ counteraction; 
• Its compliance with the European model outlined by the Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing Consortium (PEPP-PT), created by a group of scientists, companies, and research institutes spread across eight countries, including Italy; 
• The guarantees offered for the respect of privacy.

How Immuni works?

Immuni’s Exposure Notification System aims to alert users when they have been exposed to a potentially infectious user. The system is based on Bluetooth Low Energy technology and does not use geolocation data of any kind, including GPS data. The codes are generated completely randomly, without containing any information about the device or the user. Thus, it is necessary to keep both Bluetooth and GPS turned on for the app to work optimally. The codes are changed several times every hour to further protect users’ privacy. For each user, the app periodically downloads new cryptographic keys sent by users who tested positive for the virus from the server. The app uses these keys to derive their random codes and checks if any of those codes match those recorded in the smartphone’s memory in the previous days.

If the user comes into contact with subjects who subsequently tested positive for the swab, they will be notified with a notification. This will allow them to promptly contact the general practitioner to receive instructions on the steps to be taken. When the health facilities and the ASL will find a new positive case, with the consent of the subject himself, the health workers will insert a code in the system. At this point, the system sends the notification to all those users with whom the positive case has been in close contact.

The software can recognize and memorize the electronic devices with which the patient’s smartphone has come into contact to signal potential risk interactions.

Gurantees privacy

The app’s privacy guarantees the fact that the application will record the proximity between devices through anonymous data, i.e. not directly associated with a person’s identity. The information remains inside the smartphone until any infection is diagnosed. The software underlying Immuni was selected by the experts of the task force set up by the Minister for Technological Innovation and Digitization in agreement with the Ministry of Health because it was considered the most suitable among the projects submitted.

In conclusion, the use of a mobile application of this kind is possible only with a national law that specifically and determinedly establishes the objectives and methods for its operation, and provides for specific and adequate measures aimed at protecting the rights and the freedoms of the data subjects. 

Therefore, it is still necessary to wait for the enactment of this law to be able to understand exactly what the consequences, risks, and advantages associated with the use of the Immuni App may be.