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Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

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Re: Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

#121

Post by grey-area »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #114
grey-area wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the government already has this capability in place, they can track and bug individuals and groups via telecom networks.

Yes but previously they would have needed a law passed to do such monitoring without a warrant, now people are just volunteering it with the drive by apple and google to publically and very openly track who you hang out with, where you're going, where you've been and then enthusiastically sharing it with the government. This is the softening up. Once covid is over in a few months or years they will be like "well look…

Is a rubber stamped warrant which allows mass surveillance really a warrant at all? How many requests has the fisa court denied? Which law allows for warrantless collection of all this data?

Re: Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

#122

Post by yuy7878 »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #118
yuy7878 wrote: post #57

This seems to misunderstand or dismiss a lot of important details about the proposal. > The current specifications allow phones to learn when and where they were in contact with another device. That's over simplifying it massively. First the spec clearly states that no location data is recorded, since the location is not necessary for the application of contact tracing. > By pushing a button on one phone, by reportin…

You trust them to not log that information when it is all clearly available to them? You are trusting apple, google, and the US government to not do the wrong thing? Or to not use this as a stepping stone to a permanent and more invasive "feature" to insure your safety?

You can argue this without having to misrepresent or lie about what their proposal says. It hurts your credibility if you do even if you were to have a perfectly valid argument.

Re: Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

#123

Post by nunez »

jmull wrote: post #52

This guy is wrong about the Apple/Google contact tracing program. As created, it’s opt-in only and does not report matches to a central authority. This guy says, yeah, but the gubment could abuse the tracing mechanism for things besides an epidemic, force your phone to report matches centrally, and force the removal of the opt-in part of it. ...except, if a government can pull those off, they don’t need this new cont…

I think it's only opt-in on the surface. I could see governments requiring users to be opted-into the program in order to get tested for COVID.

Re: Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

#124

Post by keanzu »

avra wrote: post #36

I'm afraid someone has to tell the author that what is already possible is worse than the concerns raised here. This technology is actually an effort to not use the available methods that would ignore privacy.

Working with the [Taiwan's] five major telecoms companies, the system tracks the quarantined individual by triangulating the location of the their phone relative to nearby cell towers. “Each telecom company has a different way of calculating the location of the phone, including how far it is from the cell reception tower and its direction in relation to the tower,” said Jyan Hong-wei, director general of Taiwan’s cybersecurity department. “As long as the phone is turned on, we can figure out the location. And if the phone is turned off, we’ll know that, and we can send a message to front line administrative or police officers so they can follow up.”

https://qz.com/1825997/taiwan-phone-tracking-system-monitors...

Exactly: Pervasive tracking is already available to the telcos and is being used in at least one country.

Re: Stop the Apple and Google contact tracing platform

#125

Post by kostarelo »

kostarelo wrote: post #78

> The police could quickly see who has been close to a murder victim: simply report the victims phone as being ‘infected’. > A company could install Bluetooth beacons equipped with this software at locations of interest (e.g. shopping malls). By reporting a particular beacon as ‘infected’ all phones (that have been lured into installing a loyalty app or that somehow have the SDK of the company embedded in some of the…

Correction: Snowden did indeed met with journalists when he was in Hong Kong and first disclosed the story.
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