About closecontact
COVID-19 has impacted individuals and communities all around the world and forced countless businesses to close their doors. In Berlin, some sectors are re-opening, but our clubs remain largely shut.
Berlin’s nightlife has historical significance and continues to be an essential part of the city’s culture. These spaces have long inspired people both here and abroad, and their failure to return would be a monumental loss culturally and economically. We want to help our favorite venues however we can.
In response to COVID-19, the Berlin Senate has imposed contact-sharing regulations on our hospitality sector as a condition of re-opening.
What is closecontact
closecontact is a simple and secure web application which allows venues to temporarily register visitors. It provides an easy answer to the problem of contact-sharing, helping speed the process of re-opening while meeting all public health regulations. Guests can be confident their personal information is secure at all times, and clubs can efficiently satisfy new requirements without having to independently gather and store information.
How closecontact works
Guests load a webpage on their device and provide basic contact details, receiving a personal pass in the form of a QR code.
Clubs scan your pass when you enter, saving your encrypted contact details for contact sharing. The passes are then deleted automatically from the club’s records after 30 days.
For guests
1. Enter your contact information at closecontact.club
When you are prompted to provide your contact details, you are required to provide your name, a valid phone number, your address and email address. closecontact does not store any of your personal information at this point. This will be used to create your personal encrypted pass.
2. Check your email
Your pass will then be sent to you via email. Please check your spam folder in case it ended up in there.
3. Show your pass to the club door staff
Passes are then scanned upon entry to a club to share your contact information for COVID-19 tracing, and stored for 30 days. Your personal information remains encrypted, and neither closecontact or the door staff can view your information. If it’s requested by the health authorities within the 30 day period, the club administrator can decrypt the log for specific dates and times.
A technical overview is available for more detailed information on privacy and encryption features.
For clubs
Clubs use the scanner to check in passes as guests enter the venue. The information on all passes remains encrypted and anonymous for the storage period, and all data is deleted automatically after 30 days. In the event of a request from the health authorities, club admins will be able to decrypt and download relevant guest information.
Clubs who wish to use closecontact can email team@closecontact.club to register.
The closecontact team
closecontact is an independent service, built in Berlin by a local team to help facilitate the re-opening of Berlin’s clubs. It was developed by a group of engineers, lawyers and designers from the music tech industry, with additional input from a handful of Berlin venues. Between us we have worked at companies such as SoundCloud, Beatport, Ableton, LiveNation and Defected Records.
