Corona ain't cheap for Germans

What the mobile Corona-Warn-App has in common with GTA IV

I always wondered why the development of the mobile Corona Warn App has been given to two German conglomerates that have a history of layering bad UX on top of overpriced software.

In hindsight it had nothing to do with skill or experience. It was because of connections and it was for profit - not societal benefit.

I wouldn’t say the app is bad. It isn’t. But even with all the security measures that were needed for this kind of sensitive application, it’s just a ridiculous amount of money for something with such a limited amount of functionality.

I do hope for a brighter future. Building and running software isn’t easy. And it certainly isn’t cheap. But here, many things are way out of bounds and it’s typical for how Europe and Germany deal with digital ecosystems. We tend to stick with our guns, but our guns are broken, unloaded and aiming at ourselves.

Given that our privacy laws will only make it harder to keep up with the technological pace of the world, I’m a little scared we will at some point be trapped inside our own fortress europe, left with bureaucratic technologies built by people that don’t care for innovation but for keeping things as they are.

Personally, I‘ve devoted most of my life to work against or around this. Technology should be open and pragmatic and those who build it with our society‘s money should be required to be the same.