<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/qatar-contact-tracing-app-1m-people-sensitive-data-at-risk-coronavirus-covid-19>

A security flaw in Qatar’s coronavirus contact-tracing app put the sensitive personal details of more than a million people at risk, according to an investigation by Amnesty International.

The app, which is mandatory for Qatari residents to install, was configured in a way that would have allowed hackers “to access highly sensitive personal information, including the name, national ID, health status and location data of more than 1 million users”, according to Amnesty International’s security lab.

Claudio Guarnieri, the lab’s head, said the flaws, fixed following their discovery, “should act as a warning to governments around the world rushing out contact tracing apps that are too often poorly designed and lack privacy safeguards”.

The Qatari app uses a mixture of GPS and Bluetooth technology to track Covid-19 cases and warn people who may have been exposed to an infectious person. Like the UK’s app, it operates on a centralised model allowing the country’s interior ministry access to the information it gathers.
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