Moxie's analysis: https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1248707315626201088
Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
261–270 of 484 posts
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#262Am i the only one who thinks it's mindblowing that people use Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. however now that Apple + Google release a tool to prevent thousands of people from dying in a pandemic they start thinking/complaining about the possible privacy implications? (without even having read the specs or knowing the details...)
1) Covid19 was largely dangerous for old people cumulatting other comorbidities, mostly retired people. 2) Old people don't move that much and don't meet that many other people. It leads me to believe that the proposed loss of privacy isn't the best way to fight a virus such as a flu
1. It's old people AND people with comorbidities, which is a ton of people.
2. Lots of old people, which for Covid is about 65, still work full time jobs. Some of them fly every week. These aren't 95+ year olds.
3. I'm sure people of all ages think their life is very valuable, and very few people consider themselves candidates for sacrifice. Certainly not for privacy concerns.
4. 10x deadlier than the flu.
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#263https://covid19-static.cdn-apple.com/applications/covid19/cu... > Upon a positive test of a user for COVID-19, their Diagnosis Keys and associated DayNumbers are uploaded to the Diagnosis Server. A Diagnosis Server is a server that aggregates the Diagnosis Keys from the users who tested positive and distributes them to all the user clients who are using contact tracing. Is this scalable? Earlier in the document they…
48MB per day just isn't that much these days.
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#264There is surprisingly little discussion about the actual spec here. It looks really good to me! - Advertisements change every 15 minutes, are not trackable unless keys are shared. - The only central bit is a repository of "infected" daily keys. - No knowledge about contacts is shared with a central authority. Nothing is shared unless you are infected and decide to share your keys, which are only valid for one day. I…
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Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it was already terrible before. But it was labelled as terrible. I was for the secret service. Now it's going to be culturally accepted, and in the hand regular administrators. This is on order or magnitude worse, for something that was awful.
Because it's being used to fight something even more awful. There are no good choices in a pandemic.
I wish I could share your optimism
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#266Is contact tracing technology categorically different from mass surveillance technology?
Yes. This has an identifier (RPI) that changes every 10 minutes (in a way that can’t feasibly be tied back together, unless you declare yourself infected and upload your diagnosis key), and it does not share or upload any location data whatsoever.
All it does is store the RPIs it sees, downloads diagnosis keys, and checks whether any of the RPIs it has stored “belongs” to one of the diagnosis keys it has downloaded.
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did you read about it? This isn't that.
What part? Deriving location from contact tracing is trivial. The fact that its being discussed as opt-in? If participating in society requires that you "opt-in" then what about it is really opt-in?
I know on HN we are not supposed to allege that someone hasn’t read TFA, but please, could you read the spec and then give some details on how to (“trivially”) derive location from the contact tracing as described?
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) Covid19 was largely dangerous for old people cumulatting other comorbidities, mostly retired people. 2) Old people don't move that much and don't meet that many other people. It leads me to believe that the proposed loss of privacy isn't the best way to fight a virus such as a flu
1. It's old people AND people with comorbidities, which is a ton of people. 2. Lots of old people, which for Covid is about 65, still work full time jobs. Some of them fly every week. These aren't 95+ year olds. 3. I'm sure people of all ages think their life is very valuable, and very few people consider themselves candidates for sacrifice. Certainly not for privacy concerns. 4. 10x deadlier than the flu.
It could only work if everyone wear a phone. And then what's next? Forcing everyone by law to always wear a phone at all time?
I would rather see new phone sensors that scan the air, the breath and the body for diseases than a new tracking technology. We could also develop new medicines, etc. Not tracking.
Edit : we also don't have much knowledge about why the virus is more lethal for some people than others. We should focus effort at predicting who will be asymptomatic and who will develop complications, rather than trying to stop the virus from spreading by isolating people
Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#269Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology
#270Am i the only one who thinks it's mindblowing that people use Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, etc. however now that Apple + Google release a tool to prevent thousands of people from dying in a pandemic they start thinking/complaining about the possible privacy implications? (without even having read the specs or knowing the details...)
People aren't being forcefully sharing their health status via FB, IG, etc. Imagine if Facebook published if you had an STD to your friends.
Given the number of deaths caused by STDs, it is perhaps justifiable for such data to be shared in the same fashion as one's Covid-19 status, assuming the sharing of the latter is justified.