Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would encourage you to read up on the technology behind it. It was intended to be anonymous to such an extend that some governments went out and said they wouldn't use it because of the lack of tracking. The methodology has also been laid out quite extensively, and it's an opt-in approach.
It's not about tracking locations, it's about tracking social connections. I'm a skeptic it won't see abuses.
The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
121–130 of 156 posts
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#122Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#123This shows the application and gives an overview of how the product works for the citizen: https://github.com/immuni-app/immuni-documentation/blob/mast... This the main technical documentation document: https://github.com/immuni-app/immuni-documentation/blob/mast... All the documentation is here: https://github.com/immuni-app/immuni-documentation
I have looked a bit at the documentation (not the code yet) and I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised. They seem to be doing this right, including an attention to the reproducibility of the builds, which IMO is of utter importance in such a sensitive app: https://github.com/immuni-app/immuni-documentation/blob/mast... (long story short: Android builds are substantially reproducible, iOS are not because there d…
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#124Some other countries recently took same path, relevant discussion here : 1) Singapore : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22702701 2) India : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23311298 3) Germany : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23376682 ( no discussion, link to repository ) 4) France : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23321137
Japan: An open source community built a contact tracing app but the government doesn't adopt the app and building different app. I expect the app won't be open sourced. https://github.com/mamori-i-japan/mamori-i-japan-ios
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#125Interesting. I am curious to see how well it works. The UK (which is developing two apps in parallel, one based on the Google/Apple API and one based on a proprietary protocol similar to PEPP-PT) has found in a large scale trial that though the technology worked relatively well, people did not respond well to being told to isolate by an app. It would be ironic if after weeks of passionate arguments on HN and other pl…
I would have thought that this depends a lot on the nature of said "message".
It needs to be a personal decision based on evidence you make available to the individual.
For example - if you were to send a message like - here is a photo of you on a bus, this person sitting next to you has tested positive, you sat next to them for 25 minutes - then sure, people will likely take action based on that.
The Government sending a message saying "you need to stay indoors for 2 weeks now because computer said so" is just not compatible with most people's world view, of course that's going to be completely ignored, it's arbitrary house arrest.
It also doesn't help that the UK Government are acting like circus clowns, people are going to say things like "Boris told me to stay indoors, but I needed to test my eyesight[1]".
[1] https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/25/people-warned-not-test-eyesig...
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#126The UK has also refused to legally commit to not sharing the data with other government departments such as the Home Office (immigration and policing) and DWP (benefits).
So much for data protection and obtaining data for a designated purpose. Whatever happened to the GDPR.
I know enough people that will be inappropriately harmed by this sort of data, whether it is used against them directly or not (it's still a miserable life living in constant fear of "doing something wrong", which now includes "being somewhere you shouldn't be" or "being near someone you shouldn't be"), that I'm firmly against this sort of surveillance state expansion, and firmly in favour of data protection.
As it stands currently I will not install the UK app, and I advise all my friends to steer well clear of it as well.
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(If they meaningfully improve data protection then I'll change my mind and be all in. E.g. the Google-Apple approach and zero-knowledge methods are enough for me. If epidemiologists and public health would find data useful, let's use some differential privacy. I'm not against data collection done properly in such a way that actually protects people.)
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#127What happened to the US Apple/Google app?
* https://9to5mac.com/2020/05/21/covid-19-exposure-notificatio...
* https://www.wired.com/story/covid-19-contact-tracing-app-fra...
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#128AGPL for these apps is probably a good match.
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#129Last I read the UK intends to centrally retain proximity-contact data for 20 years. Rather than deleting when it is decided it's no longer needed to deal with the pandemic. The UK has also refused to legally commit to not sharing the data with other government departments such as the Home Office (immigration and policing) and DWP (benefits). So much for data protection and obtaining data for a designated purpose. Wha…
that's scary..
any chance you can share the references for these?
Re: The Italian Covid contact-tracing app is now developed in open source
#130Interesting. I am curious to see how well it works. The UK (which is developing two apps in parallel, one based on the Google/Apple API and one based on a proprietary protocol similar to PEPP-PT) has found in a large scale trial that though the technology worked relatively well, people did not respond well to being told to isolate by an app. It would be ironic if after weeks of passionate arguments on HN and other pl…