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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

#281

Post by thu2111 »

cromulent wrote: post #72
0xy wrote: post #15

Governments around the world have already started to pilfer data collected from these apps, as was predictable. [1] [1] https://www.9news.com.au/national/wa-police-stand-by-decisio...

That's a totally different category of app though right - the ones using the Apple-Google framework don't share any PII.

That's not a distinction most will recognize, partly because believing this is true requires you to trust Google wouldn't share sensitive data with the authorities. They just proved they will happily push code to your device without notifying you at all, if they think it's for the greater good.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#282

Post by machinerychorus »

digitalsin wrote: post #233
ehsankia wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling installing a contact tracing app (which really is just a small wrapper over the existing Exposure Notification API) as "fucking evil" seems like bit over the top...

Can you point me to the github repo so I can review the wrapper code? 'cuz I trust the government since they are so sane these days.

Here is the platform that the app is built from:

https://github.com/google/exposure-notifications-android

And here is the code for the two services it talks to:

https://github.com/google/exposure-notifications-verificatio...

https://github.com/google/exposure-notifications-server

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#283

Post by underseacables »

tunap wrote: post #234
marvindanig wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, given that a significant percentage of citizenry is anti-vaxxer-level-stupid, there isn't much improvement over people trusting their local Government either…

Considering in a not too distant yesterday(pre-Covid) the "anti-vaxxers" were all liberal/granola types and now they are magically all conservative/racist types, perhaps you may want to re-assess your 2-dimensional view of the real world. I believe a cogent example was on the front-page of HN just a day or two ago, but IANYG.

Labels like anti-vaxxer just seems to be weaponized propaganda to me. It’s a cheap, easy way to discredit someone you don’t agree with. Hopefully as time goes on and disparaging groups throw these accusations back-and-forth of each other, that it eventually dilutes their meaning and impact.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#284

Post by machinerychorus »

triska wrote: post #87

This is very inconsiderate. For example, depending on your cell phone plan, data transfer may incur high costs, especially when roaming etc. Therefore, owners of cell phones may be interested in limiting it to the absolute minimum. As I see it, this consideration by itself already should have prevented this automatic installation.

the app doesn't use any data, just a bluetooth connection for exchanging keys with nearby devices, and wifi for downloading the keys published by people who tested positive

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#285

Post by underseacables »

tunap wrote: post #236
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually great it's happened. It showed everybody that the government can install whatever they want on your phone without your consent and knowledge. In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Another reminder you are not the owner of your device.

-In this case they decided to leave you the option to uninstall but in the future they might not and spy on you at will. Then they'll be just like Google, Fecebook, Amazon, etc, etc.

My kids really want an oculus but I absolutely refuse to let Facebook into our house, anymore than I knowingly have to; I’m sure they’ve weaseled in other ways I don’t know about yet.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#286

Post by aceazzameen »

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

Sorry, I was referring to custom ROMs.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#287

Post by ellenhp »

FearlessNebula wrote: post #279
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.

I'm not smart enough to know what some of these words mean or if this guy is being truthful, but I found this comforting to read as a GrapheneOS user:

https://grapheneos.org/faq#baseband-isolation

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#288

Post by xeromal »

megous wrote: post #192
TomOwens wrote: post #140

Most of the comments on that app as well as here are probably wrong. I'd suspect that everyone who had the app "installed without their permission" opted into the Android COVID-19 Exposure Notification program. This was deployed by Google as part of an update to Google Play Services. When you go to your phone's settings with this update, there's an option to enable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications. When you turn it on…

There's even a standard for mobile operators to control the setting in your modem and update/install apps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMA_Device_Management I reverse engineered what this does in practice on pinephone modem (Quectel EG25G), for example, and there are pre-compiled binaries there for tmobile and vodafone that process their particular OMA DM flavors, download some configuration and code from internet…

I was about to say it might be through the carriers. I put a Verizon sim in my phone and I got a bunch of BS apps installed on my phone a few days later.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#289

Post by fitzie »

of course anyone following the details of covid understands that contact tracing is useless with high cycle PCR testing, asymptomatic spread, and widespread infection rates. contact tracing has been shown to be ineffective and a waste of resources since it was tried in the very beginning. but govt continues to dump money and create regulations into this folly.

Re: Massachusetts health notifications app installed without users’ knowledge

#290

Post by flyinghamster »

TomOwens wrote: post #140

Most of the comments on that app as well as here are probably wrong. I'd suspect that everyone who had the app "installed without their permission" opted into the Android COVID-19 Exposure Notification program. This was deployed by Google as part of an update to Google Play Services. When you go to your phone's settings with this update, there's an option to enable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications. When you turn it on…

To clarify: It's in your Google Account settings, not a separately broken-out setting that you see when you first bring up your phone settings, or at least it's that way on my phone.
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