Germany has launched a coronavirus tracing app that officials say is so secure even government ministers can use it, though developers acknowledge it isn’t perfect yet.

Smartphone apps have been touted as a high-tech tool in the effort to track down potential Covid-19 infections.

But governments in Europe have run into legal and cultural hurdles trying to reconcile the need for effective tracing with the continent’s strict data privacy standards.

Germany, where a person’s right to their own data even after death is rooted in the constitution, has proved a particular challenge.

“Tracking where a person is in real time, that does remind us of China and its surveillance system,” said Frederick Richter, who heads the independent Foundation for Data Protection.

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