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U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

washingtonpost.com

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Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#51

Post by srcmap »

tempestn wrote: post #26

The government tracking everyone's location all the time would be/is a gross infringement on privacy. The government tracking everyone's location for a limited time period in order to curb a deadly epidemic seems much more reasonable. The difficulty is trusting them to give back that power when the crisis is over. If not for the experience of the Patriot Act, I'd be more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt ther…

This is happening already - anyone who use Google map has their location data collected for the past 10 years with default setting. Police can issue geofencing warrant against the location/time and Google will share that data.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/18/google_geofence_war...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/13/us/google-loc...

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#52

Post by grey-area »

Best solution to this IMO is a special app which allows you to check in, prove your virus status (have it, had it, don't have it yet). Map of other users in the area so you know you're safe. You could then use that to check in to shops etc. and not be allowed in without showing status, those who have it have to stay home and check in for a given period. Uses biometrics to ensure a given user is using it.

Apple should be working on this.

After the virus is contained or has burned out everyone deletes the app. No feds snooping at location data required.

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#53

Post by ta999999171 »

srcmap wrote: post #48
ddmma wrote: post #21

‘in moments of crisis, people are willing to hand over a great deal of power to anyone who claims to have a magic cure—whether the crisis is a financial meltdown or, as the Bush administration would later show, a terrorist attack’ (Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine)

Maybe law can be created to allow state/local government to collect and use such info when "declaration of local infectious deceases emergency" by state governor. Especially allow for department of public health to access the Google's Sensor Vault data in emergency situation. I would support that BUT I also understand how that might open the "pandora's box" for all other government requests/laws like the existing geo…

Yeah, the US has been in a continually renewed state of emergency longer than anyone reading this would have guessed...decades.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies...

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#54

Post by NikolaeVarius »

palijer wrote: post #7
wyxuan wrote: post #3

This should've happened a long time ago. I really think there should be more cooperation between governments and tech companies so they can come up with solutions like this much faster like they did in China

What solutions did they come up with in China?

Welding populations into APT blocks

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#57

Post by zhte415 »

grey-area wrote: post #52

Best solution to this IMO is a special app which allows you to check in, prove your virus status (have it, had it, don't have it yet). Map of other users in the area so you know you're safe. You could then use that to check in to shops etc. and not be allowed in without showing status, those who have it have to stay home and check in for a given period. Uses biometrics to ensure a given user is using it. Apple should…

> Map of other users in the area so you know you're safe.

I think that would be a terrible idea. Not everyone in the world is a rational-thinking HackerNews reader ;). I would imagine it would lead to cases of mob-mentality which could be very thoughtful like community support for food/necessity delivery but also cases of unfortunate mob-mentality that could be very bad.

> You could then use that to check in to shops etc. and not be allowed in without showing status

This is exactly what's being done in China. But without the map of your neighbours. Everyone (that cares to go out) has a 'green' 'amber' 'red' status code via Ali or Tencent. Green indicates fine, Amber indicates movement (provincial or international, sometimes inter-city depending on province) within the past 14 days, Red indicates suspected.

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#58

Post by toast0 »

saurik wrote: post #47
teh_infallible wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I think the only way we will retake our privacy is when hobby level, readily available hardware, software, and 3d printable parts enable hobbyists to create “good enough” phones with encryption and privacy options that won’t exist in mass market phones. Then an enterprising startup can deliver marked-up, preassembled devices, then people might have privacy again.

The goalposts on "good enough" keep moving. When everyone else has a holographic direct-to-eye refraction display, people are going to be as disappointed in a 2020-level smartphone as people were with OpenMoko devices, which still had a pressure-sensitive touch screen with a plastic stylus when the iPhone has just come out with its relatively massive capacitive multitouch display.

I was disappointed with the OpenMoko for many reasons, but the screen wasn't one.

Things like it wouldn't read my sim (bug 666), the stylus was almost required, but there was no place to put it, audio issues, sleep/wake issues, poor battery indication and tricky to charge from a flat battery.

Sure, the screen was kind of small, but the resolution was high, so you could claim hidpi before Apple invented it?

Re: U.S. govt, tech industry discuss using location data to combat coronavirus

#59

Post by TeMPOraL »

didibus wrote: post #35
tempestn wrote: post #26

The government tracking everyone's location all the time would be/is a gross infringement on privacy. The government tracking everyone's location for a limited time period in order to curb a deadly epidemic seems much more reasonable. The difficulty is trusting them to give back that power when the crisis is over. If not for the experience of the Patriot Act, I'd be more inclined to give the benefit of the doubt ther…

They could make an app and work with Apple/Google to have it auto-installed, but where the app can be uninstalled by the user if they wish to opt out.

Google could just give OLAP access to feds. They already have all the data needed thanks to Maps.
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