Contact-Tracing Apps Fail to Deliver on Tech Boosters’ Promises

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As Covid-19 spread, sending almost every country into some form of lockdown, governments began to wonder how best to keep track of the deadly virus. Contact-tracing apps seemed a sensible solution.

But everywhere you look, tech has failed to deliver. In France, less than 3% of the population has downloaded StopCovid. The U.K. missed an initial rollout deadline and has chosen to start over using another platform. Tracing apps in the U.S. have been caught in a social media war about ...