Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge • Hacker News Board

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#271

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:26 PM UTC

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #265

aceazzameen wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another MA resident here. Never opted in and it still shows I'm not. The app was silently installed on my Android. There's no icon so I thought it didn't install at first, until I looked at my app list in settings. I'm curious to know if there's any MA Android users that previously removed Google Play, and if they still have the app or not. My guess is no?

You cant remove google play in andtoid versions beyond 6 i believe. You can only disable it

You can also flash a custom ROM and just not install gapps.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#272

Post by madars » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:27 PM UTC

notwhereyouare wrote: post #269

madars wrote: post #261

I was reading about this yesterday and confirmed that I did not have gov.ma.covid19.exposurenotifications.v3 nor gov.ma.covid19.exposurenotifications installed. I turned off auto-updates in the Play store (Settings -> Network preferences -> Auto update apps -> Don't auto update apps) and went to sleep. This morning I woke up with a cheerful notification that Google can help with COVID notifications and gov.ma.covid19…

Did you check your covid19 exposure opt-in settings? Of everything you mentioned you checked, I didn’t see you say you checked that setting. That setting could be what caused the install

Yes, I confirmed last night that Settings -> Google -> COVID-19 Exposure Notifications was off. (Aside, I read somewhere but have not confirmed this myself that manually enabling that setting leads to a flow for installing the gov.ma.covid19.exposurenotifications app, whereas the forced update is gov.ma.covid19.exposurenotifications.v3 -- note the extra v3). By the way, MassNotify app is not visible from Play Store search (both on mobile and on desktop -- https://play.google.com/store/search?q=MassNotify) and does not create an icon -- you can only find it in Play Store via its internal name (e.g. a link like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.ma.covid19...), and would have to specifically look in system dialog for all apps to see if it is installed.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#273

Post by thu2111 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

yunohn wrote: post #118

ElViajero wrote: post #56

It is obvious that we need better legislation to deal with all the new possibilities that technologies have opened. The installation of this app, even done with good intent, open a lot of questions on what should be possible or not to be done by government and corporations. When you get a device with pre-installed, uninstallable, or auto-installed apps. What are the rules? > "By enabling this service, you can be quic…

> instead of the silent install the government could have spend money in advertisement campaigns This absolutely does not work. Here, the NL gov tried this and almost nobody installed the app, despite it using the privacy-safe google/apple API.

It's smart. The result of using these apps is that lots of people have to quarantine, even though these policies have not resulted in any impact on the virus in any way, and even though there can be test false positives (which is officially denied, so there is no way to appeal any positive test result). Why would people want to sign up for that?

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#274

Post by sneak » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:31 PM UTC

okdjnfweonfe wrote: post #77

fragileone wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That doesn't fix the issue ISPs mandate certain capabilities of the cellular modem + the simcards (remember java cards? that ran java? they still exist as simcards!) Government RCE is still 100% on the table regardless of whatever software your phone is running

Smartphones are usable without sim cards.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#275

Post by ReptileMan » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

We were held indefinitely inside, denied freedom of association and travel, the social media companies went berserk censoring anything that didn't fit the narrative. The restrictions were sometimes contradictory or made no sense or worked and nobody cared to check which were which.

And somehow installing app without asking is surprising and a problem. You have been already trough far worse in the last year.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#276

Post by pharrington » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

pharrington wrote: post #112

From what I've read (I don't live in Massachusetts), the app is installed via the auto update channel, but it explicitly asks permission to activate. If you think this is bad, the commercial apps that have been auto-installing for years, without notifying the user , should have you throwing a conniption.

mea culpa, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27560468

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#277

Post by thu2111 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

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.

Why do most of the things governments have been doing about COVID? Not because they work or make sense, most of their policies were undermined by data showing ineffectiveness a long time ago.

They do these things because they can.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#278

Post by thu2111 » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:39 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #167

arpstick wrote: post #90

a government installing a software without notice or consent onto their population's devices is not something a healthy functioning democracy does, it's what a psychotic paranoid despot does. if the Mass Gov truly wants to minimize harm this is the opposite of what needs to be done. all this will do is drive conspiracy theories and deepen a very legitimate mistrust in the institutions that plague the USA (which helpe…

>"if the Mass Gov truly wants to minimize harm this is the opposite of what needs to be done." where is the actual evidence for this? Both Taiwan and South Korea deployed massive, digital tracking efforts to respond to covid often at the cell-provider/ infrastructure level so the entire population was covered whether they wanted to or not. Nothing about this was despotic or paranoid, it was simply the correct, swift,…

You are merely arguing that it was worth it because you agree with the goal, not that it wasn't despotic or paranoid.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#279

Post by FearlessNebula » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #246

Fellow humans, there are alternatives! Your neck need not be under FAANG's boot! You don't even need to give up any functionality: CalyxOS: https://calyxos.org/ Privacy-respecting Android distribution that replaces Google spyware with MicroG, so you can have your cake and eat it too. Most everything will work as you're used to, but it does still talk to Google to make that happen. GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/…

Even with Graphene OS you’re still using a phone that has a proprietary modem which has its own hidden CPU that acts like a black box. Who knows what it does or if it can read main memory.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#280

Post by underseacables » Sat, Jun 19, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

ElViajero wrote: post #56

It is obvious that we need better legislation to deal with all the new possibilities that technologies have opened. The installation of this app, even done with good intent, open a lot of questions on what should be possible or not to be done by government and corporations. When you get a device with pre-installed, uninstallable, or auto-installed apps. What are the rules? > "By enabling this service, you can be quic…

“ When you get a device with pre-installed, uninstallable, or auto-installed apps.”

We’ve never had televisions in the house, but I finally broke down and bought a television so my kids could watch Disney+ on the big TV. The first television I purchased was a Samsung, and it came with these apps that I could not uninstall, did not what, and in fact used storage space that I couldn’t do anything about. I put it back in the box and took it back to the store, and got an LG. Very frustrating experience.