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Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

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Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#81
post #76

This project may be necessary to enable fair elections in the United States and other democratic countries through November. On the other hand if built improperly it could usher in a 1984-style future with gerrymandering, vote-rigging, and huge increases in surveillance based government suppression. When the government is granted emergency powers it almost never gives them back. Please do not fuck this up.

How would this contact tracing technology help with vote-rigging?

Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#82
post #75

Thinking big, if this works against covid: could it later be used to severely limit or eliminate diseases such as the common cold and the flu? That would be an incredible win for humanity.

Could the cons be as incredible as the pros?

Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#83
Ok so looks like the key to understand is flow diagram from ContactTracing-BluetoothSpecification.pdf page 6 scanning: CFUserNotification "App would like to access time and duration of your %d contacts. Approve?"

What it looks like it's application framework based on system service I hope they won't start advertising ios bluetooth all the time and only allow application to do it. In that case application can be safely removed.

I am also concerned about cloud Diagnosis_Keys

Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#84
post #78

It's quite horrible if it becomes a standard API. What a gold mine it is for ad business to be able to tell which groups of people are together. It can be used to track 'idea spreading' as well.

Sounds like this will only be available for approved public organizations.

> First, in May, both companies will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These official apps will be available for users to download via their respective app stores.

Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#86
post #78

It's quite horrible if it becomes a standard API. What a gold mine it is for ad business to be able to tell which groups of people are together. It can be used to track 'idea spreading' as well.

Of course it’s potentially rife with abusive power. And we need to make sure that this is a very temporary thing (admittedly it’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle). That said, you can’t advertise to the dead. There’s a very real need here, and some governments are off doing this on their own anyway. I do believe that at least Apple and Google combined can come up with a solution that has some amount of privacy protection that a state actor would never bother with themselves.

Re: Apple and Google partner on Covid-19 contact tracing technology

#89
post #76

This project may be necessary to enable fair elections in the United States and other democratic countries through November. On the other hand if built improperly it could usher in a 1984-style future with gerrymandering, vote-rigging, and huge increases in surveillance based government suppression. When the government is granted emergency powers it almost never gives them back. Please do not fuck this up.

How would this contact tracing technology help with vote-rigging?

If you can track the detailed movements of voters and connect that to party affiliation you would have complete visibility into meetings, social networks, and up-and-coming politicians, such that you can prioritize suppression efforts on those regions. Similar as a whole to gerrymandering, but imagine key political opponents being shut down "as the data shows a cluster of CV-19 may appear here at this exact date and time".
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