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Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

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Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#61

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

simpss wrote: post #37

I think the real question is what mechanism allows them to push a random app to some phones? google play services is actively listening for remote installation requests? that's essentially a remote-code-execution backdoor to all android phones?

No different than, say, "Windows Update".

The entire "updates" culture is essentially RCE backdoor (botnet) functionality for "trusted" tech companies.

Consent, where it is actually explicitly obtained, never rises to the level of "informed". That's because even if a user "consents", she still cannot see what is in each update.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#62

Post by sbassi »

Animats wrote: post #22
gostsamo wrote: post #4

Here is an official page for the same app. Interesting what is the whole story. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/enable-massnotify-on-your-...

Why do this at this late date? A year ago it would have been useful. Now, 59% of Massachusetts's population has been fully vaccinated. About 70% have at least one shot. A bit more pushing and they'll hit 80%, which seems to be about where the epidemic dies out for lack of new carriers.

funny thing is that California also had something like this but was disabled during this week.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#63

Post by fragileone »

simpss wrote: post #37

I think the real question is what mechanism allows them to push a random app to some phones? google play services is actively listening for remote installation requests? that's essentially a remote-code-execution backdoor to all android phones?

I thought this was well-known, Android is not private at all until you degoogle. Unlock your bootloader then install a ROM without Google Play Services such as GrapheneOS, CalyxOS or LineageOS.

You can consider installing microG also as an open-source minimal implementation of Google Play Services if some of it's functionality is absolutely necessary for you to keep.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#64

Post by kuschku »

ganzuul wrote: post #53
kuschku wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany had a massive ad campaign for months without much success. The issue remains that people are lazy . That’s part of why microsoft bundling IE was banned, because 90%+ of users won’t go out of their way to install something.

I can't find those ads, but most likely the ads were uninformative so people did not find them to be instructive. Suggestion without reference to fact is the norm with those campaigns.

These ads were on every single billboard, bus station, etc in the country https://www.dfb.de/fileadmin/_processed_/202007/csm_224709-D...

And the TV ad was shown as preroll ad for youtube videos for months, and on TV during every ad break on every channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4fCbuZqo6M

Just the ad budget for this app dwarfed the budgets of some hollywood blockbusters, and yet it still didn’t reach more than 10% of the population

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#65

Post by cblconfederate »

Google and apple install tons of software basically without consent (os updates) , so an app being pushed like that is not surprising. It is worrying however that tech people dont seem to realize how great their tools are for totalitarian states , which push apps and spying much worse than this to their subjects. We really need to talk about users owning their devices and their software rather than leasing them. There is no device that allows users to control what it does , that's scary

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#66

Post by malka »

ahofmann wrote: post #50
malka wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... you trust Google ?

Everyone running android play services on their phone has to trust Google, right?

For one, I don't. But since having a smartphone is mandatory, I have one.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#69

Post by sohei »

simpss wrote: post #37

I think the real question is what mechanism allows them to push a random app to some phones? google play services is actively listening for remote installation requests? that's essentially a remote-code-execution backdoor to all android phones?

A corollary of your question. If Google can lawfully install arbitrary apps on ordinary users' phones, can it also run arbitrary code on the personal devices of government officials investigating it for price fixing in the ad market?

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#70

Post by malka »

kuschku wrote: post #6

The app is just a fork of the German Corona-Warn-App [1][2]. From what I can tell only the UI was modified, the codebase seems to be still the same. Honestly, pushing the app to users isn’t anything to worry about – and in fact something I’d have loved to see other countries do as well. ________ [1] https://www.coronawarn.app/en/ [2] https://github.com/corona-warn-app

>and in fact something I’d have loved to see other countries do as well.

Why are you wishing harm on people ?

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