The hype surrounding the Luca app: What does the latest tool offer you?

“Experience life together” is the motto of the Luca app. The first Corona app is intended to help users assess the risk of an infection. Meanwhile, the Luca app has a different goal. With the help of this app, contacts should be easier to track. If an infection occurs when users encounter them, they will be notified immediately. The project is intended to help contain the spread of the virus and at the same time make events possible again during the corona pandemic. In the Google Play Store alone, the Luca app has recently been downloaded over 500,000 times. But what is the use of this new app for you in particular? What does the new tool offer its users? We will answer these questions for you in our blog post.

What is the Luca app anyway?

The aim of the Luca app is to make visits to Gastronomy, cultural institutions or on events Back to enable. The app provides a timely and privacy-compliant contact tracing, in which the health authorities are directly involved. In this way, your guests no longer have to manually sign up for lists. As an operator of a restaurant, café or cultural institution, the Luca app finally offers you the perfect solution away from the tedious task Paperwork to liberate. No more illegible addresses or falsified contact details. For this purpose, the app offers the help of QR codes offers the perfect solution. On the basis of the codes, a encrypted contact diary created. Accordingly, you don't have to do any cumbersome work with obtaining the contact details of your guests. In addition, you don't have to worry about the data being misused. If a user of the app tests positive, the health department will contact them. Auf voluntary basis Your own contact history can be made available to the authorities.

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‍Luca app features

‍A visit to the official homepage The Luca app promises users a lot. In addition to a fast and seamless contact tracing also a direct notification when assessing risks - everything in exchange with the responsible health authorities. Die Transmission of data Happens scrambled. In addition, a personal contact and visit history. Summarized at a glance, the Luca app offers you:

• Constantly changing and anonymous QR codes
• Double encryption of contact data
• Verified phone number
• Visit and contact history
• Direct notification in case of infection
• Automatic check-outs and geo-fencing (optional with approval): The app can access your location
• Active relief for the health department
• Highest data protection and data security standards
• Acceptance of documentation requirements
• Complete tracking and rapid stopping of infection chains
• Device-independent (Android, iOS, web app, analog)
• Recording the length of stay

Behind this app is that Berlin-based start-up neXenio and some cultural workers. The app owes its rapid popularity primarily to German rapper Smudo, member of Fantastischen Vier, who promotes the Luca app on various social networks and on TV. The aim of the Luca app is to connect three parties: hosts, visitors And the health authorities.Before using the app for the first time, you must register in the app with your name, telephone number and address. The phone number provided is verified via SMS. If the user goes to an event, the app gives them a variable by the minute QR code. The host can read this code when checking in. Alternatively, users can check themselves in at the location using a QR code. This is simply done using the smartphone camera, which reads in a QR code generated by the organizer. Such locations can theoretically be set up anywhere, including on public transport or at work. With the help of Geo-fencing It is playfully easy to check out when leaving a location.

What happens in the event of an infection?

As soon as an infected person or an organizer with whom an infected person was on site shares the personal data set with the health department, all users listed therein receive a message. If you yourself are classified as at risk, a warning appears on your smartphone. This is usually followed by a telephone call from the health department. The advantage is that if many users share their encounter data, the greater the chance that the authorities will find the so-called “superspreaders.”

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‍How is the data transfer to health authorities carried out?

1. If the health department receives an infection report, the person concerned will be contacted immediately.
2. In the Luca app, the infected person shares their personal history with the health department using a TAN.
3. The responsible health department decrypts the history. It then receives information about the whereabouts of the last 14 days.
4. The affected venues are contacted by the health department and asked to approve the time-relevant check-ins via the Luca system.
5. These check-ins are decrypted by the health department. Quick and seamless tracking of contact persons can then be initiated.
6. If a person belongs to the contact group, they will be informed by the health department.

Data securityTo ensure the security of your guests' contact details, the Data encrypted twice. If your guests visit your restaurant or attend your event, they scan a QR code that you have created. The contact details of your guests are transmitted in the process. This data is associated with a Day key the health authorities encrypt. As an operator, you send the contact data, which is also protected with your own key, together with your operator ID, a trace ID and a time stamp to Luca.

As mentioned above, the app stores the visit history and can be made available to the health department in the event of an infection. To decrypt the data, the Luca app provides its users with a TAN available, which passes this on to the Office. Based on this data, the authority then asks Luca about the relevant events. The system then first asks for the operator key for the identified events.

The app sends the decrypted records to the health department. Only the Office is able to determine users' contact details using their own key. The Luca app uses AES 128 CTR and HMAC with SHA-256 encryption methods. The double encryption is intended to ensure that neither the operator nor Luca can see the contact details.

‍Does the Luca app replace the corona warning app?

‍The Luca app replaces the Corona warning app not. The function of the Luca app here is a Supportive. With the corona warning app, contacts are anonymously nationwide with the help of bluetooth It is recorded and it is determined whether two people have come dangerously close for at least five minutes. The app is also used by fast digital transmission the test results. Meanwhile, the Luca app is used to Visitor lists are created for restaurants or events that are made available to health authorities promptly in the event of an infection. This means that the Luca app does not automatically warn you if you have come too close to an infected person on the bus or train. But creates the app contact groups for people who were in the same place at the same time with the Luca app. In this way, the Luca app uncovers chains of infection for events, for example. The necessary measures can therefore be taken immediately. For this reason, it is possible to use both apps in parallel.

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Luca app challenges

In order to optimize the use of the Luca app in public spaces, the regionally responsible health authorities must provide an interface. In Germany, only a few countries and cities have used the Luca app so far:

• Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• North Rhine-Westphalia: Warendorf
• Saxony-Anhalt: Salzlandkreis
• Schleswig-Holstein: North Frisia
• Thuringia: Jena

As the number of participating health authorities changes spontaneously, we recommend that you visit the following link to inform. Simply enter your zip code and you'll find out whether your local health department is participating. For the Luca app to be successful across the board, it is therefore essential that numerous health authorities use the Luca app and that more citizens download the app.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was the first German federal state to buy a license from neXenio for 440,000 euros two weeks ago. On 12.03.2021, the health authorities were connected to the Luca system. “The app replaces the handwritten entry of customer names and addresses in lists that have previously been displayed in restaurants or movie theaters, for example,” shares the State government in Schwerin with. As a next step, medical practices, fitness studios, hair salons, but also schools and daycare centers will be familiarized with the system. The state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania hopes to create a safe path to tourism with the Luca app. The islands in the north in particular hope to start the season at Easter.

conclusion

In addition to the Luca app, other developers also offer a similar service, such as Vida app, Shapefruit or Darfichrein. However, there are costs associated with these providers. Experts fear that too many different apps could make it difficult to accept digital tools. This quick option to track contacts is an important prerequisite for reopening public institutions to the public step by step. The Luca app means a noticeably easier collection of your guests' data for you. In everyday life, this app will save you some annoying work. Not only do you benefit from this app, but also your guests and health authorities. Regain a little more normality thanks to the Luca app. With our WiFi marketing package, your customers/patients/guests advertise for you, are happy and recommend you to others.