BERLIN: Personal data protection is a thorny subject in privacy-loving Germany, but the country is nevertheless considering using a smartphone app to help manage the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Even Chancellor Angela Merkel — who often refers to her youth in surveillance-ridden communist East Germany — on Wednesday said if it turned out to be a helpful way of tracking the spread of the virus, “I would... of course be willing to use it for myself.”

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