realignment
The Luca app should enable payment in restaurants in the future
The start symbol of a Luca app is shown on the screen of a smartphone. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The health authorities have almost stopped contact tracing. This also eliminates the original purpose of the controversial Luca app. Now she is supposed to do other tasks in restaurants, for example.
The controversial Luca app to combat the corona pandemic is to be realigned. “Contact tracing by the health authorities is no longer taking place,” said the managing director of the operating company Culture4Life, Patrick Hennig, on Wednesday in Berlin.
Therefore, the further development of the app is aimed primarily at the Luca partners in gastronomy and culture. The “image” had first reported on the plans.
In the future, restaurant owners and event organizers should be able to check the complete vaccination certificate and the identity of their guests at a glance. In a new version of the app, which is due to appear at the end of the week, you will also be able to save your ID card locally on your smartphone for this purpose. This will be done in the form of a so-called token, which will be verified and made available via a partner app. In addition, the Luca system is to be expanded into a complete payment system for restaurants.
New business model urgently needed
The makers of the app are currently having to look for a new business model because most federal states have let their contracts with Culture4Life expire or have terminated them. The Luca app was launched in 2020 in order to collect the contact details of restaurant guests and event visitors, as required by most infection protection regulations, in a data protection-friendly and efficient manner.
The system has repeatedly sparked fierce criticism. The Luca skeptics are particularly bothered by the concept of central data storage. Critics, such as the Chaos Computer Club, warned against misuse of the data collected via the Luca system. The Luca encryption system criticized by critics withstood attacks, but the Luca makers could not prevent the police in Mainz from having the data of guests illegally queried via the health department in order to clarify a possible crime.
With the new digitization offer for restaurants, bars and cafés, Luca now wants to score points with lower fees for card payments, among other things. Luca is able to offer significantly more favorable conditions per transaction. However, the new functions for gastronomy and culture would have no effect on the strategy already announced for the health authorities, emphasized Henning. The new model, not having to subscribe to Luca on a permanent basis, but only using it when needed, enables the health authorities to react to local outbreaks in a targeted manner, even with a view to the future in an endemic situation. The data of the users are earmarked and would only be used for contact tracing. “Luca has no other use for it and no access at all.”