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Coronavirus-Tracking Rules Put Apps in Privacy Bind
Govt Tech ^ | May 14, 2020 | GERRIT DE VYNCK, NATALIA DROZDIAK AND HELENE FOUQUET,

Posted on 05/16/2020 10:58:05 AM PDT by DoodleBob

(TNS) — From France to Australia to North Dakota, government apps designed to help authorities track and slow the spread of COVID-19 are struggling to accomplish their goals because of restrictions on data collection built into smartphones by Apple Inc. and Google.

That’s leaving public health officials with few options but to use a system designed by Apple and Google themselves. The tech companies say their tools preserve privacy and work seamlessly on devices used by some 3 billion people.

Here’s the rub: Those same privacy features lock authorities out of collecting information they can use to track the broader spread of virus, spot larger patterns and plan reopenings.

“The exposure app gives you an indication that you’ve been in contact with someone that was positive, but it doesn’t do anything for the health department and its contact-tracing efforts,” ...

Apple and Google even renamed their framework Exposure Notification, signaling that it doesn’t do true contact tracing, the process of tracking a virus from person to person. Instead, it lets individual smartphones keep track of which other handsets they’ve come close to by using Bluetooth wireless signals. If a person notifies the network they have tested positive for COVID-19, everyone they could have infected is issued a warning, if they’ve opted in.

The system does this matching anonymously on each device, rather than in a central database that governments could use to track the disease more broadly — a feature the companies say is more secure and helps quell user concerns about who sees their sensitive health data.

At the same time, the companies are refusing to ease restrictions in their mobile software that are blocking governments from building their own centralized, less private apps for contact tracing.

(Excerpt) Read more at govtech.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bigbrother; bigtech; contacttracing

1 posted on 05/16/2020 10:58:05 AM PDT by DoodleBob
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To: DoodleBob

How long before they want to chip us?


2 posted on 05/16/2020 11:10:19 AM PDT by Spok
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To: DoodleBob

Interesting. This is the first admission that Apple and Google do not follow their own privacy guarantees, and have ways around it.


3 posted on 05/16/2020 11:16:49 AM PDT by Ingtar (Days for infected to double: 1.85 on March 18, 11.94 on April 6. Last day I can calculate.)
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To: DoodleBob

Glad I never needed a cell phone. Thinking anyone that wants to come see me will have to leave their cell phone behind. Otherwise, too bad so sad, lol.


4 posted on 05/16/2020 11:23:11 AM PDT by IndependentGranny
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To: DoodleBob

If they’re tracking, it’s not private...it’s intrusive....and violates right to privacy.


5 posted on 05/16/2020 11:26:55 AM PDT by Sacajaweau
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To: Spok

They want to chip you . . . and your little dog Toto too.


6 posted on 05/16/2020 12:00:30 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Howard Beale "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore.")
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To: Spok

We are already chipped thru our phones


7 posted on 05/16/2020 12:06:39 PM PDT by olepap
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To: DoodleBob
Update...

Apple and Google’s COVID-19 tracking system will make its full US debut in new Virginia app

8 posted on 08/06/2020 4:02:09 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: mewzilla

Thank you. And the hits they just keep on comin’...


9 posted on 08/06/2020 5:48:32 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s^s)
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