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Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

reuters.com

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Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#471

Post by Springtime »

sk0g wrote: post #441
sk0g wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I heard it works fine on Android, but on iOS it works ok... as long as you have the app running in the foreground, and your phone unlocked, while out and about. The only way to fix that would be to use this new API on iOS.

Since people seem to be downvoting without commenting: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2020/05/covidsafe-issues-ios-ipho...

I wasn't one who downvoted but parent post was asking for source on whether this app is going to utilize the new APIs, specifically. According to your subsequent link, near the bottom, currently it's unclear:

"The Government will work with Google and Apple to investigate whether the new functionality announced by Google and Apple partnership is beneficial for the app performance"

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#472

Post by choward »

uluyol wrote: post #336
coliveira wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having Google/Apple develop a tracking technology is the same as the US government having it. If you don't believe, read again what Snowden revealed several years ago.

What? I don't think this is accurate. From what I recall, the US was/is spying on the major tech companies and would regularly demand data and place gag orders on those companies. Neither actions are willful forms of data transfer. The first is actually an eternal game of cat and mouse. NSA finds a leak for some data, Google fixes it, new leak, etc. The second is targeted handover of data, and only affects a few indi…

What kind of fantasy land do you live in? Nothing you said is true.

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#473

Post by mongol »

kd5bjo wrote: post #409
m12k wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the notion of trusting any company over a certain size is crazy - I wish people would stop anthropomorphizing companies that way. Basically, I can trust specific people if I feel that I know their character, and by proxy I might trust a company that these people have significant control over. Once a company reaches a certain size, any power that individual employees wield will have been diluted to microscopic…

I’ve thought for a while that trademarks should be non-transferrable, and should be voided on change-of-control of a company. Their primary purpose is to let the consumer know the origin of goods, and to allow companies to build a reputation around intangible properties of their products, like longevity, quality, and craftsmanship. Selling a trademark is fundamentally betraying that trust in exchange for a monetary r…

Very interesting. Is this your own idea or has it been more widely discussed?

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#474

Post by blauditore »

72deluxe wrote: post #446
blauditore wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of disagree with this. If a company publicly claims to follow certain principles and vows to have mechanisms in place to protect user privacy, people on the inside are able to judge if those principles are being followed. The larger a company is, the lower are chances that everyone would stay silent in case of a (systematic) breach of those principles. So in a sense, it's much harder for larger companies to se…

But history has proven this wrong. e.g, how did the entire German population wilfully engage in something that they now consider very wrong and ashamed about (WW2)?? (Quite a generalisation I know, but it's an example of a lot of people going along with something they may not entirely agree with, not comparing Apple to the Nazis BTW, nor am I saying that every single person went along with it). I am merely saying tha…

WWII is somewhat different in that it was not secret what was happening. Speaking up on the inside is a much bigger step than just talking to outsiders.

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#475

Post by andrekandre »

Larrikin wrote: post #433
randomchars wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice to have some people like you, but a significant amount of public servants I encountered visibly took pressure in making the life of other's miserable, and the processes as convoluted as possible.

Some people in government want the government to succeed and make people's lives better. Some people in government want the government to fail in all ways besides keeping them and the people they like safe so they can personally benefit and pocket the tax savings on top.

> Some people in government want the government to fail in all ways besides keeping them and the people they like safe so they can personally benefit and pocket the tax savings on top.

and its much easier to make something fail than it is to succeed, which is why voting for (and keeping) the right people is so importamt

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#476

Post by Nullabillity »

fenomas wrote: post #308
azinman2 wrote: post #239

I have to say, working at Apple and knowing all the hard work that goes into this and making sure your data stays private while also being able to combat this disease, it's very frustrating to read a lot of the comments here. I can understand why the public is skeptical, but I feel like as a society we've swung so far away from institutional trust that now nothing good can actually emerge. The anti-vax movement is a…

I've long felt like Apple is uniquely easy to distrust, due to its almost total lack of visible employees. I assume there are actual people working there, but I've never seen one, say, speak (openly) at a meetup or answer a stackoverflow question, or the like. ~Everything I know about Apple either comes from an advertisement or from a guy who talked to a guy who talked to Gruber, and I have a feeling that that makes…

Their infamous secrecy doesn't exactly help either.

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#477

Post by aguyfromnb »

azinman2 wrote: post #239

I have to say, working at Apple and knowing all the hard work that goes into this and making sure your data stays private while also being able to combat this disease, it's very frustrating to read a lot of the comments here. I can understand why the public is skeptical, but I feel like as a society we've swung so far away from institutional trust that now nothing good can actually emerge. The anti-vax movement is a…

>just gets tossed aside because some celebrity 'feels' like there's a connection that isn't there,

The anti-vaxxers may be wrong, but boiling it down to a "celebrity's feels" seriously underestimates the movement, and likely adds to the reasons these people don't trust the institutions.

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#478

Post by andrekandre »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #466
rorykoehler wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies shouldn't be allow to become as rich and powerful as Apple. We're supposed to live in a democratic system. Corporate power on the scale of FAANG is the antithesis of democracy.

So a democratic system that ignores property rights when it suits the mob that is not actually Democratic.

property rights of companies or individuals?

democracy is about individual freedoms and rights, not necessarily those of profit-seeking entities

Re: Apple, Google ban location tracking in apps using their contact-tracing system

#479

Post by selestify »

blauditore wrote: post #474
72deluxe wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But history has proven this wrong. e.g, how did the entire German population wilfully engage in something that they now consider very wrong and ashamed about (WW2)?? (Quite a generalisation I know, but it's an example of a lot of people going along with something they may not entirely agree with, not comparing Apple to the Nazis BTW, nor am I saying that every single person went along with it). I am merely saying tha…

WWII is somewhat different in that it was not secret what was happening. Speaking up on the inside is a much bigger step than just talking to outsiders.

What? The Holocaust was definitely kept under wraps from the general public until the concentration camps finally got liberated. Sure, some members of the public heard rumors, but it wasn't like Nazi Germany was doing it completely out in the open.
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