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Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

ccc.de

21–30 of 55 posts

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#21
post #15

TraceTogether[1] by the Singapore government meets most of these requirements and is/will be open sourced soon. 1: https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg

In this case, even if it only does exactly what it says it does, the data gathered is more valuable than anything else. Complete movement profiles of an entire nation. Can you put a price tsg on that?

From that perspective whether it is open source is a secondary consideration.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#22
post #15

TraceTogether[1] by the Singapore government meets most of these requirements and is/will be open sourced soon. 1: https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg

In this case, even if it only does exactly what it says it does, the data gathered is more valuable than anything else. Complete movement profiles of an entire nation. Can you put a price tsg on that? From that perspective whether it is open source is a secondary consideration.

The app does not use GPS or other location data, contacts are established only by Bluetooth pairing.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#23
post #9

Entire countries are under house arrest. I don't trust the government but I also want my parents to be able to go to store or hospital without risking their lives. Pretty much everybody is either in at-risk group themselves or has a close relative or friend who is at-risk. Maybe this isn't the dystopia we deserve, but it's the dystopia we need.

[deleted]

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#24
post #15

TraceTogether[1] by the Singapore government meets most of these requirements and is/will be open sourced soon. 1: https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg

In this case, even if it only does exactly what it says it does, the data gathered is more valuable than anything else. Complete movement profiles of an entire nation. Can you put a price tsg on that? From that perspective whether it is open source is a secondary consideration.

Everyone generates an anonymous ID, if they come within Bluetooth proximity the devices trade these anonymous IDs. No location data is collected and none of the data is sent over the internet.

If you become infected you have the option of broadcasting your ID as being infected and others can compare the infected list against the IDs collected on their phones.

None of the data you mentioned is being collected.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#25
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the few cases where mandatory installation of apps will save lives, as seen in China/SK. For those "40% only if privacy concerns are addressed" there is a gradient of privacy. How many of them will still have concerns no matter what? And how many will not install anything out of laziness/comfort? Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are installed in 90%+ of phones and happily scoop up location data every day…

Mandatory how? How will you address people without suitable devices? Not everyone has a (suitable) smartphone. Making owning and carrying a smartphone with required app mandatory won't fly in any healthy democracy.

Really? 6 months ago I'd have said that putting the entire nation under house arrest won't fly in any healthy democracy, but here we are. Turns out no country is more democratic than China.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#26
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the few cases where more privacy might literally save lives, because people will be more inclined to install the app if the privacy is taken more seriously. There was a poll where Germans were asked if they would install a contact tracing app. Some 40% sayed yes outright. Another 40% said "only if privacy concerns are addressed". So you're looking at a potential 40% market penetration without proper pr…

This is one of the few cases where mandatory installation of apps will save lives, as seen in China/SK. For those "40% only if privacy concerns are addressed" there is a gradient of privacy. How many of them will still have concerns no matter what? And how many will not install anything out of laziness/comfort? Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are installed in 90%+ of phones and happily scoop up location data every day…

One could say as well: This is one of the few cases where not living in an open society where citizens have rights might save lives.

I wonder. Some of my friends don't own a smartphone. How will that contact tracing app run on their Nokia from 2010? Or will they get a smartphone from the state? How would you check if someone owns a smartphone, or whether they are pretending to have one of the old ones? If your goal is to get as many installations as possible on devices people take with them is it really the most productive thing to try forcing it?

Don't get me wrong, I do realize that propper contact tracing is the only way to deal with this virus until we got a vaccine, but I don't see how a mandatory app installment could be enforced in any western state without breaking fundamental rights. You'd literally have police knock at doors and force people to unlock their phones in order to check the installed apps, if you really want it to be installed everywhere. You would have to stop people in the street and have them show you their device AND frisk them to make sure they are not showing you a decoy device with the line: "Ooops the battery went out" or "Ooops I broke it a few minutes ago".

No – in western democracies transparency and voluntariness carries much farther. If the CCC approved any contact tracing app, even I'd immidiately install it without hesitation. If however I had to trust a closed source app by a government which tried at every turn to legalize the surveilance state I'd probably not do it. If the state would force me to do it, I would actively work against it and help others to do the same.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#27
post #15

TraceTogether[1] by the Singapore government meets most of these requirements and is/will be open sourced soon. 1: https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg

This effectively puts proximity data in the hands of the government, violating points 3, 5, 7, 8, and 9.

> When you are close to another phone running TraceTogether, both phones use Bluetooth to exchange a Temporary ID. This Temporary ID is generated by encrypting the User ID with a private key held by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

From: https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/common/privacystatement

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory how? How will you address people without suitable devices? Not everyone has a (suitable) smartphone. Making owning and carrying a smartphone with required app mandatory won't fly in any healthy democracy.

Really? 6 months ago I'd have said that putting the entire nation under house arrest won't fly in any healthy democracy, but here we are. Turns out no country is more democratic than China.

A friend of mine still uses a old Nokia from ~2009. Will he get a free smartphone? Who will check if he has it on him? What if he has it on it and the battery is empty? Or the screen is broken? What if suddenly everybody wants a free smartphone? What if suddenly everyone carries a broken old phone with them as a decoy with the police?

The answer to these questions is easy in a authotarian state: you assume they are bad actors and use the full force of the state on them – so people will go out of their way to do as if they comply with your rules even if they don't.

In any democratic nation with a culture of scepticism when it comes to the government it won't be that easy. If you force people to do things over here, you will get a considerable portion of people working actively against you in ways that you cannot prove. It might be easier, more efficient and fruitful to just make it voluntary.

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory how? How will you address people without suitable devices? Not everyone has a (suitable) smartphone. Making owning and carrying a smartphone with required app mandatory won't fly in any healthy democracy.

Really? 6 months ago I'd have said that putting the entire nation under house arrest won't fly in any healthy democracy, but here we are. Turns out no country is more democratic than China.

In increasing degrees of difficulty, how does a government get:

* people who own an Android or IOS smartphone to install a required app? (Might work if Google or Apple pushes the software, but does this outlaw non-stock-Android and IOS operating systems on a smartphone? Will Apple/Google do this for every country with an app?)

* people who don't own a smartphone to buy one? (Subsidized? Black-box devices that only need to be charged at home as an alternative for this group? How do you deal with people who don't want one for valid reasons besides privacy? E.g., people who got rid of them because they are vulnerable to the addictive properties of smartphone apps? And of course people who can't afford them.)

* people who can't use a smartphone to carry one around? (The digitally or otherwise illiterate or mentally incapable, and people with physical limitations won't just disappear overnight. This includes many elderly; exactly the weakest group with this virus.)

Re: Corona App – 10 requirements for the evaluation of “Contact Tracing” apps

#30
post #26
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the few cases where mandatory installation of apps will save lives, as seen in China/SK. For those "40% only if privacy concerns are addressed" there is a gradient of privacy. How many of them will still have concerns no matter what? And how many will not install anything out of laziness/comfort? Meanwhile, Google and Facebook are installed in 90%+ of phones and happily scoop up location data every day…

One could say as well: This is one of the few cases where not living in an open society where citizens have rights might save lives. I wonder. Some of my friends don't own a smartphone. How will that contact tracing app run on their Nokia from 2010? Or will they get a smartphone from the state? How would you check if someone owns a smartphone, or whether they are pretending to have one of the old ones? If your goal i…

Your overthinking it, imagining that a large part of the population wants to be Jason Bourne. It doesn't matter if 1% will evade this (you and your friends).

But you show exactly the bigger problem: the West is so individualistic, that it will rather have millions of deaths and economic collapse than a bit of privacy infringement over a number of months, again, everybody viewing himself as some sort of secret agent that the government is out to get at all costs.

Asian countries on the other hand understand that some time you need to make some real sacrifices yourself for the greater good.

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