City of Jena supports digital solution for contact tracking

The city of Jena, the local health authority and the municipal companies JenaKultur and JenaWirtschaft support the Berlin initiative "luca - experience together". This is a solution for data protection compliant contact tracking in a secure exchange with the local health authority. Since a few weeks the luca system has been developed to relieve the health authorities after the lockdown. Jena thus reacts to urgent demands of the health authorities:

"in the future it will be necessary to connect the public health authorities to a simple, fast, data protection compliant data exchange, which integrates the public health authorities and makes their work much easier, especially when it comes to contact tracing", says Dr. Ban, head of the health service in Jena.

The luca system consists of a user app, analogue key fobs for people without smartphones and the "luca" backend system, i.e. the secure interface for the health authorities. Especially the secure interface to the public health department is to be developed to an open standard in the near future to be able to connect external service providers securely.

The city of Jena has intensively accompanied the project development and supports the introduction of luca.

The mayor of Jena, Dr. Thomas Nitzsche, explains why: "We want to look ahead now - for a time after the currently necessary restrictions - and prepare concrete solutions for the citizens of our city. With luca we can offer our gastronomy and cultural institutions a solution that helps to interrupt chains of infection and keep them traceable. Only in this way can we manage to return to more social activity".

The presentation will first take place on a municipal level in Jena.

"In my eyes, Thuringia is a digital pioneer in many areas. After getting to know the actors behind "luca" a few weeks ago, I was happy to establish contact with the city of Jena and the local health department. I am pleased that this has led to the city of Jena once again showing that it is a pioneer in the fight against the pandemic," said Mario Voigt, chairman of the CDU faction in the state parliament of Thuringia.

The team behind the "luca" initiative consists of neXenio GmbH, a spin-off of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute, and a number of cultural workers, such as the volume "Die Fantastischen Vier", who are developing the demand-oriented security concept together with security experts like Prof. Dr. Marian Magraf of the Free University of Berlin.

The Fantastischen Vier, who have been involved in luca from the very beginning, see it as an opportunity for social interaction.

"luca can help us to make social contacts and meetings with others as safe as possible, even in times of pandemic, in order to bring us all together again. visiting gastronomy and culture, public and private events is part of our life", says Smudo, who was part of the initiative with his band from the very beginning. "We as a society need a solution that works, that is accepted and where every user knows what is happening to his data. We are part of the cultural scene, but we are also personally affected. We need social contacts, but we also need security. With luca, concerts and events, among other things, can be carried out safely, the health authorities will be relieved sustainably and chains of infection will be interrupted faster, which in the end will lead to more freedom. When we heard about the idea for luca, we were thrilled."

Therefore, solutions are needed that reconcile both data protection and added value.

Patrick Hennig, CEO of neXenio: "We have created a solution that ensures that the sovereignty of the data remains with the user. So he always knows what happens to his data in case of infection. The top priority in the software concept was to balance transparency and security and to relieve the health authorities. We thank the city of Jena for supporting us in the past weeks with know-how, practical experience and constructive exchange. With luca we want to create an open standard that can be used or connected with other applications and software solutions in the future.

The luca system is a supplement to the official Corona-Warn-App and complements with its security concept the backend for a safe exchange with the health authorities. The go-live for the "luca" overall system is planned for 30.11.2020.

Patrick Hennig: "We are already in talks and look forward to a constructive exchange with all interested parties. But of course we need the support of federal and state politics, cities and municipalities. But above all, we need society, i.e. every individual."

Patrick Hennig and Smudo/Michi Beck are available for interviews.