Risk Model of German Corona Warning App - Reloaded

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the risk model of the German Corona Warning App (CWA) in two versions. Both are based on a general semi-quantitative risk approach that is not state of the art anymore and for some application domains even deprecated. However, it turns out that the CWA uses a much more limited model, that does not even assess risk, but relies only on one parameter, a weighted exposure time. It is shown that the CWA grossly underestimates even this parameter and so may reassure the users wrongly. As the CWA also has other systematic limitations and shortcomings it is advised not to rely on its results but rather on Covid testing and vaccination.