Apple and Google Partner on Opt-In COVID-19 Contact Tracing Technology to Be Added to iPhone and Android Smartphones

jonblatho said:
While I haven’t read Google’s draft documentation, it appears that Google plans to follow Apple’s approach quasi-exactly. No sense in reinventing the wheel, so to speak. Like I mentioned, with Find My, Apple’s basically already shipped this feature and they’re just going to re-apply it to this use case with some tweaks.
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Exactly and you completely nailed it

As you mentioned, this is what will come with Airtags. Here's an explanation from Wired

www.wired.com

The Clever Cryptography Behind Apple's 'Find My' Feature

Apple says an elaborate rotating key scheme will soon let you track down your stolen laptop, but not let anyone track you. Not even Apple.
www.wired.com www.wired.com
 
code-m said:
What happened to people’s natural immune system?
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The following happens: At first, the natural immune system is unable to react quick/strong enough if you're old or if it is suppressed. Or if you are young and unlucky and get a high virus load directly into your lungs (the virus normally replicates in the upper respiratory tract for a few days before infecting the lungs).

And then your own "natural immune system" kills you by destroying itself through overreaction and by causing inflammation in your lungs to the point that not enough oxygen can be exchanged.
 
Not going to work in my opinion. Why?

Idiots who’ll opt in as having had the virus “for a laugh” to cause panic when they’re near someone who hasn’t had it who is checking to see who around them has.

This will become the tech equivalent of scumbags version of coughing in someone’s face “for a laugh”.
 
FyerFyer said:
That’s because you truly don’t understand what no control of privacy means, otherwise you’d be saying quite the opposite.
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Please have a look at my further replies here and here. Anyway I'm always willing to learn, unlike some others here who seem to already know about every thing on this planet. I'm not talking about you.
 
This was planned to be implemented regardless of the current situation, it just brought it forward.
This is the underlying motive for the elimination of the headphone jack, the changes to the Bluetooth settings, and the addition of Bluetooth features. And we all thought they needed the space, or sell soeme more headohones 🤣. The next level of tracking, and later it certianly won't be opt-in (if that makes difference anyway).
 
4jasontv said:
Why is 2 an issue? Is there something wrong with letting companies die instead of people? It might slow the economy but it also has the benefit of increasing the chances of dismantling existing institutions.
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People need jobs for income to survive. Keeping people indoors might protect them from the virus, but at the expense of money with which to pay their bills, and there is no indication the government is willing to support its citizens indefinitely.

Some have the savings to tide through months or even years without having to work, others may be living paycheck to paycheck and could well starve or be unable to pay rent or purchase essential medication and the like.

The problem with a doctor is that he doesn’t think like an economist and the problem with an economist is that he doesn’t think like a doctor. Ultimately, I don’t see one as being any more right than the other.
 
To anyone who would never want this.
I hope you will enjoy keeping your total privacy as you are in hospital on a ventilator on the verge of dying at any moment.
Also be proud that, due to your selfish choices you may have infected others who may die, as there will be no record of you being near them as you were passing your infection to them.
 
Whoever comes up with this idea at Apple is literally naive to think it will alleviate the problem and it's an inaccurate and unreliable method and no example of how it can work to help out.
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itsmilo said:
whats the point of knowing where people where if its supposedly private? you will not be able to contact those people that were potentially in contact with an invected? and by the time you analyse something, it has already spread.
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Apple is very vague on informing the people how it actually works at all.
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556fmjoe said:
This is an abhorrent and catastrophically dangerous idea.
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Agreed, it is more like an experimental than a doable idea.
 
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one more said:
In the coming months, Google and Apple will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-baed contact tracing platform by building this functionality into their underlying platforms.

What puzzles me here is “In the coming months” bit. According to the current forecasts, most of the world should be off the Covid-19 infection peaks by then. So what is the point of putting all this Apple-Google effort in? Are they expecting Covid-19 to become a permanent thing, like a super-flu, hitting the world on a regular basis from now on?
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Apple is filled with idiots and that's why it is making such useless announcement that does not solve the problem.
 
I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.

I’m sure Tim Apple has good intentions, but once this is over will Apple be able to disable this API? If they can who’s to say the government won’t try and force them to ‘turn it on’ for others reasons.

I don’t trust google for 10 seconds to not turn this on and never turn it off.
 
It is also possible for Apple just to pass the information straight to Google and still claim they are not cooperating with personal tracking because THEY are not doing it directly.

I don’t trust Apple any more than Google. There are too many semantic games being played.

icanhazapple said:
If you're a US citizen, I don't think you comprehend how privacy and civil liberties are intertwined.

And I don't trust Google to make this only opt-in.
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Mr. Awesome said:
If Apple’s involved, then all the location information is probably anonymous. Plus it says that it’s opt-in, so most criminals probably wouldn’t really want to do this out of fear of being tracked (even though they probably wouldn’t be tracked).
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A good dose of sci-fi is in order here. All those who think this is a great idea should watch and ponder the TV series Electric Dreams, based on Philip K Dick’s short stories, particularly Season 1 Episode 6, “Safe and Sound.”

MacRumors said:


Apple and Google today announced a joint effort that will see them using Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus around the world.

applegoogle.jpg

Apple says that user privacy and security will be central to the design of the project. Participation will be opt-in, and privacy, transparency, and consent are "of the utmost importance of this effort."Starting in May, Apple and Google will release APIs that enable interoperability between Android and iOS devices using apps from public health authorities. These apps will be available for users to download from the iOS App Store and Google Play.


In the coming months, Google and Apple will work to enable a broader Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform by building this functionality into their underlying platforms. Apple says that this solution is more robust than an API and will allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, and it will enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities.All information about the work being conducted by Apple and Google will be openly published and built in consultation with interested stakeholders. Initial details on the contact tracing technology are available on Apple's new webpage for the feature, which has links to technical documentation on Bluetooth specifications, cryptography specifications, and the framework API.

TechCrunch has specific details on how the tracking procedures will work. A random, rotating identifier will be assigned to a person's phone, and it will be transmitted via Bluetooth to other nearby devices.

The identifier, which rotates every 15 minutes and has no personally identifiable information, will pass through a relay server that can be run by health organizations worldwide. The list of identifiers a person has been in contact with doesn't leave the phone unless the user explicitly decides to share it. Users that test positive will not be identified to other users, Apple or Google.

All identification matching is done on device, allowing users to see within a 14-day window, whether their iPhone has been near the device of a person who has self-identified as having tested positive for COVID-19. Users who are notified that they have been exposed will then receive steps on what to do through a public health app.

Apple and Google are not using any location data for the tracking feature, including from the users who report being positive. The tool is meant to determine not where affected people have been, but rather if they've been around other people so that those people will know to self isolate due to the exposure.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple and Google Partner on Opt-In COVID-19 Contact Tracing Technology to Be Added to iPhone and Android Smartphones
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firewood said:
Once these apps are available, some schools and busnesses may *require* opting in to this contact tracking in order for anyone to return to school, work, or etc, when they open back up. Or the business's insurance company or lawyer may require this to reduce liability.
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What Apple & Google don't understand is that this will be the first real reason to ditch the phone when you go to a party or other social event. Or even better have two phones one that stays clean and is used when required by the oppressive government and one to use when you want to be a free human.
 
icanhazapple said:
If you're a US citizen, I don't think you comprehend how privacy and civil liberties are intertwined.

And I don't trust Google to make this only opt-in.
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The way I see it privacy as we knew it as departed. We should than equate laws within this new reality were civil liberties are assured as well as very strong control measures imposed by law and supervised by the police over who has access to these systems, how, and what they do with it.

Personally I feel very unconfortable that unilaterally a bunch of private corporations can build and launch a mass surveillance scheme without government approvals and law supervision. This kind of liberty is not what democracy is about.

Furthermore, the political inability of the US gov to regulate this stuff in any convincing shape or form.

It may all be well intended given the situation but this is not about good intentions. But the actual fabric of democracy. What happens after?
 
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South Cores
icanhazapple said:
If you're a US citizen, I don't think you comprehend how privacy and civil liberties are intertwined.

And I don't trust Google to make this only opt-in.
Click to expand...

The way I see it privacy as we knew it as departed. We should than equate laws within this new reality were civil liberties are assured as well as very strong control measures imposed by law and supervised by the police over who has access to these systems, how, and what they do with it.
 
So do you still think Wuhan virus is from eating bats and snakes? lol

If you can't see what's going on here ... let me give you a hint.

_alse _lag
 
Nice, and after this pandemic is over the infrastructure of contacts tracing will be there, ready to be plugged into surveillance structures of countries like China, Russia, Turkey, and well, the US.
 
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