Contact Tracing and Exposure Notifications on your phone. Hoo-boy. I'm far less concerned about the privacy aspects as I am about the potential abuse.
For example, what stops someone from intentionally answering the app's questions with COVID-positive information and pretending to have the disease? Then they just saunter among large populations, now broadcasting those symptoms via Bluetooth? Say they go to Home Depot, or Walmart, or Shop-Rite, or walk into your local restaurant, or wherever. And now everybody's else's phone will get notitications that they've been exposed to someone who is positive for the disease and notified they need to stay home for 14 days. And then everybody that was exposed to them would get the same notificiation.
The result would be a logarythmic increase in the number of people being notified to stay home for 14 days, along with employees of all these facitilities, and (assuming people followed the instructions) society would again be shut down All over a prank.
I can easily see privacy groups doing the above intentionally to make a point.
OK so, will there be legal force behind the answers you give to the app (e.g., threats of perjury)? If so, will police be able to legally review and enforce your answers? Your data (incl health symptoms and locations) certainly can't be anonymous for that to happen. What are the implications of that?
Will there be legal force for you to stay home if you receive a 14-day quarantine directed by the app (even if it was done as a prank)? Again, then your health and location data certainly can't be anonymous.
If not, how long before such laws are made and the data released to enforcement agencies?
And if there's no legal enforcement behind your answers, and no legal enforcement behind the app telling you to quarantine...then why have it? After a few of these pranks get going then users' faith in the information would be quickly diminished and society will ignore the apps and/or stop using them. They'll quickly become pointless.
Right now the apps' API are "opt in". Great! But (and here comes the tinfoil hat) as with everything Silicon Valley (looking at you, Apple and Facebook), participation will assuredly, in some future version, quietly revert to "opt out" instead of "opt in" and Silicon Valley (and thus governments) will have databases of our location and travel information b/c most users will neglect to (or not be aware to) turn the "opt out" off. And data is easily sold...
There's a ton that could go wrong with this. And not much good to come of it.
5/27 Update: How to Disable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications in iOS 13.5
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/opt-out-covid-19-exposure-notifications/
For example, what stops someone from intentionally answering the app's questions with COVID-positive information and pretending to have the disease? Then they just saunter among large populations, now broadcasting those symptoms via Bluetooth? Say they go to Home Depot, or Walmart, or Shop-Rite, or walk into your local restaurant, or wherever. And now everybody's else's phone will get notitications that they've been exposed to someone who is positive for the disease and notified they need to stay home for 14 days. And then everybody that was exposed to them would get the same notificiation.
The result would be a logarythmic increase in the number of people being notified to stay home for 14 days, along with employees of all these facitilities, and (assuming people followed the instructions) society would again be shut down All over a prank.
I can easily see privacy groups doing the above intentionally to make a point.
OK so, will there be legal force behind the answers you give to the app (e.g., threats of perjury)? If so, will police be able to legally review and enforce your answers? Your data (incl health symptoms and locations) certainly can't be anonymous for that to happen. What are the implications of that?
Will there be legal force for you to stay home if you receive a 14-day quarantine directed by the app (even if it was done as a prank)? Again, then your health and location data certainly can't be anonymous.
If not, how long before such laws are made and the data released to enforcement agencies?
And if there's no legal enforcement behind your answers, and no legal enforcement behind the app telling you to quarantine...then why have it? After a few of these pranks get going then users' faith in the information would be quickly diminished and society will ignore the apps and/or stop using them. They'll quickly become pointless.
Right now the apps' API are "opt in". Great! But (and here comes the tinfoil hat) as with everything Silicon Valley (looking at you, Apple and Facebook), participation will assuredly, in some future version, quietly revert to "opt out" instead of "opt in" and Silicon Valley (and thus governments) will have databases of our location and travel information b/c most users will neglect to (or not be aware to) turn the "opt out" off. And data is easily sold...
There's a ton that could go wrong with this. And not much good to come of it.
5/27 Update: How to Disable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications in iOS 13.5
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/opt-out-covid-19-exposure-notifications/
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