A short movie by William Bryan, Julia Merk, and Alice Preat (MA Digital Journalism) produced as part of the module Media Production with lecturer Patrik Baab.

Germany’s Corona Warn app has battled misinformation and criticism on its way to lackluster adoption and app download numbers. In our documentary report, we followed Valerie Cyrkel, a Corona Warn app user and COVID-19 patient, as she detailed her illness and subsequent frustrations with the app and its many shortcomings. Our goal with the investigation was to uncover the truth about how the app works and learn whether or not it poses a privacy risk to German citizens. Could the app help build an authoritarian government oversight system?

Our group got off to a great start and managed to schedule plenty of interviews both in person and via Zoom for the investigation. Many of our interviewees were gracious enough to put up with filming outside in the cold and wind to avoid the infection risk of meeting indoors. We interviewed scientists, hackers, privacy experts, and personal rights advocates to get to the bottom of the story. It didn’t make the final cut, but we also spoke with ex-pats from Australia and South Korea to hear their thoughts on how Germany is handling the pandemic compared to their home countries.

Through our reporting, we discovered that there is zero privacy risk in using the app, but it’s still far from effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus. We also learned what changes could be made to make the app truly effective in informing the public about the virus and combatting the pandemic.

To watch the short movie, follow the link below: