Screenshot of the COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA app on the Google Play Store, on Nov. 18, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
Posted on 11/18/2022 9:57:38 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly working with Google to install “spyware” onto the Android devices of a million state residents without their knowledge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula were among 1 million Massachusetts residents who had the state’s “COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA” app auto-installed without their consent, according to the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), the nonpartisan civil rights group that filed the lawsuit (pdf) on Tuesday.
The app, once automatically installed, didn’t appear on the device’s home screen as newly-installed apps typically do. Instead, it was invisible and could only be found by opening “settings” and using the “view all apps” feature, according to NCLA.
This meant that many device users were unaware of its presence. Many have decried this as an invasion of privacy.
The NCLA declared the action a “brazen disregard” of civil liberties, saying in a statement the app was installed “without obtaining any search warrants, in violation of the device owners’ constitutional and common-law rights to privacy and property.”
“This ‘android attack,’ deliberately designed to override the constitutional and legal rights of citizens to be free from government intrusions upon their privacy without their consent, reads like dystopian science fiction—and must be swiftly invalidated by the court,” said NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Peggy Little in a statement.
Screenshot of the COVID Exposure Settings: US-MA app on the Google Play Store, on Nov. 18, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)
Other states and foreign countries mostly tried to persuade their citizens to voluntarily install contact tracing apps, even if it meant fewer people took it up, according to Sheng Li, litigation counsel for NCLA.
“The government may not secretly install surveillance devices on your personal property without a warrant—even for a laudable purpose,” Li said. “For the same reason, it may not install surveillance software on your smartphone without your awareness and permission.”
The NCLA has asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block the continued installation of the app on private devices “without the knowledge or permission of device owners.”
The lawsuit also asks the judge to make Massachusetts DPH work with Google to uninstall the app from “private Android mobile devices where the device owner did not give permission for such installation.”
The plaintiffs also want the state to declare that its actions violated Fourth Amendment rights and Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
Read more here...
Support the plaintiffs 1000%....but thankful to be an Apple platform user.
There is an Apple version of this app.
Of COURSE not!
Big Brother will do it blatantly, in your face and DARE you to try and remove it because it'll trash all of your saved data.
Of COURSE not!
Twitter, Facebook, ticTac and many other 'companies' will do it for them!
CoupFlu has NEVER been about public health anywhere on the planet.
Re: 3 - It does not install itself without notifying the user.
Exactly true !
When did we give any government permission to surveil the American population,
without knowledge, approval, or permission ?
Furthermore, the surveillance application on cell phones could not be easily found indicates their culpability.
Another personal infringement of Constitutional rights to privacy !
I wonder how many times law enforcement agencies took advantage of this tracking software to make convictions. These could all be overturned because there was not a warrant for the tracking.
But how secretly do they need to surveil when people willingly vomit out all the unnecessary details of their lives on social media?
What a great bait and switch. Make it social media instead of forced compliance, which everyone would balk at, and people’s lives are open books.
Yes, they tell you it is an optional voluntary application program on your cell phone
and then they secretly install it, and then hide the installation.
Social media applications are devious in that they make your life an open book, even if you think they are restricted.
Remember, your cellphone is a mini-computer radio communication device .
Fortunately, the cell phone application was limited to Massachusetts only , ..or was it limited to only them ?
Be selective as to which applications you put on your cell phone, and occasionally verify what programs are running in the background.
If you don't know how to verify, find someone who can show you where and how to find the information.
Another government/ Big Tech agreement to surveil the people without their knowledge, approval , or permission.
“Make it social media instead of forced compliance,”
I’ve often though how sneaky they were, to create their spyware in a format that people beg for and basically can’t live their lives without.
An example is 'Tic Tok', a Chi-Com video website that people flock to view
and yet our government states that this proggie calls back the data to China .< br> Many people feel like they can't live without this program, designed for entertainment.
Or ... just basic cell phones.
This is what Democrat Fascism looks like.
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