Live data from Hacker News

Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

github.com

81–90 of 145 posts

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If more states ban covid-passports, I wonder if the EU would rather not have tourists than allow visitations. That's certainly a possibility if safety really is a concern. But I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world. I don't think that others, who want to travel the world r…

> That's certainly a possibility if safety really is a concern. But I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world. That is incredibly mean-spirited. And exactly what I have come to expect. I am fully vaccinated: measles, rubella, all the rest. I will not get the COVID shot. I never…

> If you "trust the science", it'll give you immunity, and you don't need to worry about me at all.

Me getting vaccinated protects more than just me. It protects, for example, those who cannot get vaccinated by limiting the spread of a disease. Your perspective could be (perhaps slightly unfairly) summarized as 'your child has leukemia and caught a cold from me, well that's THEIR problem not mine'

I do not understand, and refuse to accept, that absurdist shift towards individualism at the expense of all others. It makes no sense, it is often willfully blind to the realities of day to day interaction...and its just mean spirited.

Watching the anti-COVID vaccine folks has helped me realize this isn't about medicine or science or understanding...its about selfishness.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#83

Seems complex for something that probably never going to see any real use.

You do have a point there. The EU is pitching COVID certificates as a way to restore travel in the bloc, but I can’t imagine they will be used in places other than airports/bus stations/train stations. The issue is that maintaining roadblocks along Schengen borders has incurred costs that countries don’t like to deal with long-term, and even with the roadblocks there have been a lot of gaps. I spent last summer cycli…

We are using IDEMIX to enable the DCC and COVID testing to be used all over the country. This allows us to only disclose a tiny amount of information - in many cases just one of your initials an either your month or day of birth - whilst proving yourself to be low-risk for COVID.

The DCC itself contains a lot of information so it shouldn't be directly used outside of border or police checks. I can - technically - be used as the basis for issuing of Verified Credentials by other parties. For example by airports - with the privacy protected by their privacy policy.

Whether the law allows that is another question.. and IANAL..

[Disclaimer: I work on the Dutch COVID apps and am deeply involved with Digital Green on EU level].

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#84
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's supposed to go live next Monday / by the end of the month. We'll see. Let's just say im very skeptical when it comes to IT-projects of the Swiss government. They regularly waste 100s of millions of CHF on stuff that simply doesn't work. https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releas...

It's already live in Greece (I just issued mine). The current government has taken the national bureaucracy from the stone age to the space age in something like three years. We used to have to go to the various services' offices to get whatever certificates we needed, then around a decade ago another government created dedicated physical services for certificates, validation and other such daily work. This governmen…

I've been super impressed with the way your government has worked on this. They're awesome! We've had our app out for a couple of months now (based on tests). They've started a lot later but have been able to launch sooner (I believe that they're the first ones to go live).

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#85
post #17

From the G7 agenda reporting: “ Last Friday morning, during an interview on Good Morning America, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration was taking “a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports for travel into and out of the United States. However by Friday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security was clarifying Mayorkas’ statement. The DHS says there won’…

We Swiss people are also quite suspicious with this kind of documentation (Google Fichenaffäre / secret files scandal for reasons). To my understanding you will get this Covid certificate either through vaccination, after having had Covid-19 or after a negative test. So it's not like a central vaccine database or so. (Note that we had such a database called "Elektronischer Impfausweis" but it had to be taken down aft…

Swiss software, like Swiss cheese, seems to come with holes.. security holes

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#86
post #12

This will be same for the European Union Green Certificate (DGC): https://ec.europa.eu/health/ehealth/covid-19_en The German app and implentation will be on GitHub too: https://github.com/Digitaler-Impfnachweis

It has been renamed to DCC now :-)

The apps and integration server are here: https://github.com/eu-digital-green-certificates

The schema and business rules are here: https://github.com/ehn-digital-green-development

Come join us if you're interested in taking a look, it's quite interesting :)

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already live in Greece (I just issued mine). The current government has taken the national bureaucracy from the stone age to the space age in something like three years. We used to have to go to the various services' offices to get whatever certificates we needed, then around a decade ago another government created dedicated physical services for certificates, validation and other such daily work. This governmen…

I've been super impressed with the way your government has worked on this. They're awesome! We've had our app out for a couple of months now (based on tests). They've started a lot later but have been able to launch sooner (I believe that they're the first ones to go live).

Yeah, that bit is quite impressive! I also like how they handle international matters and diplomacy, but there are a few areas where their policies haven't been great. They're a conservative party, so they haven't handled things like police brutality, corruption, etc well.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do have a point there. The EU is pitching COVID certificates as a way to restore travel in the bloc, but I can’t imagine they will be used in places other than airports/bus stations/train stations. The issue is that maintaining roadblocks along Schengen borders has incurred costs that countries don’t like to deal with long-term, and even with the roadblocks there have been a lot of gaps. I spent last summer cycli…

We are using IDEMIX to enable the DCC and COVID testing to be used all over the country. This allows us to only disclose a tiny amount of information - in many cases just one of your initials an either your month or day of birth - whilst proving yourself to be low-risk for COVID. The DCC itself contains a lot of information so it shouldn't be directly used outside of border or police checks. I can - technically - be…

While the technology you are developing may allow that proof of COVID status, as the OP mentions, it is questionable if it will actually be used broadly in many countries. When countries have already reopened their hospitality sectors to all regardless of status, then they may be loathe to begin requiring COVID proof. Nor do hospitality staff necessarily want to given the duty of checking statuses.

So if COVID status proof is required country-internally over the coming months, in many countries it will probably be used for mass events (e.g. the UNTOLD festival in Romania) but otherwise not.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#89
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The whole principle that you need to prove vaccination to be let into a country is not really new. Exactly. Necessary and recommended vaccinations are one of the first things to check when planning a trip to destinations in Africa, South East Asia etc.

In many countries they don't accept kids to nursery without up to date vacinnation card.

This is true in the U.S. as well [0]. Some states allow for religious, philosophical, or medical exemptions; these exceptions are similar to the systems implemented in the Netherlands (religious [1]), Australia (philosophical [2]) or Germany (medical [1]).

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_policy_in_the_Unit...

[1]: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057/s41271-019-001...

[2]: https://www.sabin.org/sites/sabin.org/files/restricted/Salmo...

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You actually get heavily fined when you move to Switzerland and use your foreign license for more than a year. Exchanging it is a small formality in most cases, but you need to do it.

Do you actually get heavily fined or does the cop say "you should really get a new license" and let you go on your way (assuming he has no other reason to really screw you)? My US state would give the most authoritarian parts of Europe a run for their money when it comes to blind worship of and adherence to rules for the sake of rules and on paper you must obtain a license as soon as you become a resident with no gra…

This thread gives more details: https://www.englishforum.ch/transportation-driving/267870-dr...

I'm surprised that the other commenters make it sound less definitive. In my experience, Swiss authorities are extremely strict when it comes to any sort of driving infraction, so the default expectation should be that you will get fined.

Post reply on HN