PARIS – France's lower house of parliament endorsed Wednesday a contact-tracing app designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus amid sharp debate over privacy concerns.
Lawmakers in the National Assembly, where French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party has a majority, voted 338-215 to approve the StopCovid app.
The vote, while non-binding, is expected to clear the way for the app to be made available to users on a voluntary basis starting Monday.
The government had committed to honoring the position lawmakers took. French privacy watchdog CNIL backed the app this week, stating the technology “won’t lead to creating a list of infected people but only a list of contacts using pseudonymous data.