France Wants Apple to Lift iPhone Bluetooth Restrictions for Deployment of Virus Tracking App

[2984839]

Want a godsend this virus is turning out to be. The motive for impementing this has little to do with the virus, and I would go so far as to say that it has nothing to do with the virus. This virus has been what they were waiting for to get all media on board to convince the gullible public to just accept this, an easy task it seems. The virus panic will sustained for as long as this takes to get implemented. I can't believe people, people who should know better, are falling for this.

My thoughts exactly.

For one thing, a contact tracing app is not useful. It can be trolled. It cannot be private. It can be exploited by kids who want to shut their school down by pretending to have it. There aren't enough tests available anywhere in the world to actually test everyone who has been reported by the app as being in contact with someone who has COVID-19, much less anyone with symptoms. There will be enormous amounts of false positives because it can't distinguish between proximity that could result in transmission or simply being near someone even if both individuals are wearing PPE. It can't detect contact with asymptomatic, unreported cases. It's basically useless.

But it is extraordinarily useful if you want a state-owned centralized surveillance tool to see who has been where and with whom. I am willing to bet everything I have that that is the real reason for it. It's an intelligence agency's dream come true and I bet that's where the idea is from

 

[redneckitengineer]

It only takes a single crack to break a giant dam....

 

[entropys]

I could see this if, Apple kept all the data on Apple servers and Apple had control of the server side code. I might trust France with this information. I would never trust the current United States.

Really, as a well travelled citizen of another country than either, I would trust the USA much more than France. But that says nothing.
A better default position would be to not ever trust Big Government. They are a necessary evil, but it must always be remembered that all types of governments are always led by power hungry sociopaths and narcissists. Communist, fascist, republic or parliamentary democracy, the same types infest them. The only difference is how much power they have over you, Joe Citizen, allowed by Joe and his mates.

You should never willingly give authorities the power to know who you have met with, where you have gathered, where you have been, what you think. But I spent months behind the old Iron Curtain in the eighties and have seen where power of the State can lead (And that was after the jackboot pressure on citizens’ necks was partially lifted).

Let the current lock down measures work through, and lift them as soon as practicable, and not a moment later. And don’t let the politicians use this as an excuse to expand their power over you.

 

[DeepIn2U]

After France fined them for $1.28 billion?

Apple fined record $1.2B in France over anti-competitive sales practices | TechCrunch

The wheels of the regulatory machine continue to turn, and today Apple, along with two of its wholesale partners, was dealt a major blow in France over

techcrunch.com

wonder if Apple could place the same antitrust charges on behalf of France’s citizens? Hmm

 

[Seoras]

In New Zealand one solution touted by the Government was to issue a smart BT credit card which logs who you come near.
France can afford to do that using the $1.2B cash they recently grabbed off Apple, Oui ou non?

 

[ghanwani]

I hope Apple doesn't permit this. Are there any privacy groups helping organize push back on these track and trace programs?

 

[s66]

Just say no.
Governments WILL abuse power in the long run. History has proven they always do.

 

[dotnet]

Want a godsend this virus is turning out to be. The motive for impementing this has little to do with the virus, and I would go so far as to say that it has nothing to do with the virus. This virus has been what they were waiting for to get all media on board to convince the gullible public to just accept this, an easy task it seems.

Can a virus succeed where terrorists and pedophiles failed?

 

[sterlingindigo]

Apples had plenty of practice bending to China. What moral leg do they have to stand on?

 

[sbuntin]

I could see this if, Apple kept all the data on Apple servers and Apple had control of the server side code. I might trust France with this information. I would never trust the current United States.

Problem is, you can't trust any government with this, because you cannot trust the following government with it. Much like encryption back-doors or government keys, once we give them this, we don't get it back.

 

[centauratlas]

Trusting France with anything important, like one's privacy, is a stupid move. Thank you Apple and Google, for fighting it - so far. Trusting anyone with your data is a recipe for disaster at some point.

The funny thing is that France is more likely to fight to invade the privacy of the people of the EU than they fought in either world war.

 

[Appleman3546]

Maybe Apple will allow control center to actually turn off Bluetooth instead of turning it on the next day. An easy control center action instead of forcing users that care about privacy to go into the settings app or create a shortcut for it

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

What? Slippery slope is real?

"shocked"

 

[FelixDerKater]

Why do they stand their ground against democracies, but not communist states?

 

[fairuz]

France and the European Union are pushing for data to be sent to a central server that's managed by state health services.

More evidence that the real purpose of GDPR is economic protectionism, not protecting users' privacy. Like the US government, they don't care about privacy as long as they're the ones gathering the info. Hope Apple tells them to go pound sand.

 

[827538]

Who in their right mind would trust the government with this power?

If Apple does this their credibility will be shot. It would make better sense to leave France if necessary.

 

[0924487]

This restriction is EXACTLY to prevent this type of collection. Bluetooth beacons otherwise will track your every movement. If that is the case, Apple should expose a setting on the iPhone to reset Bluetooth addresses, just like how you can get new MAC addresses.
[automerge]1587441948[/automerge]

Really, as a well travelled citizen of another country than either, I would trust the USA much more than France. But that says nothing.
A better default position would be to not ever trust Big Government. They are a necessary evil, but it must always be remembered that all types of governments are always led by power hungry sociopaths and narcissists. Communist, fascist, republic or parliamentary democracy, the same types infest them. The only difference is how much power they have over you, Joe Citizen, allowed by Joe and his mates.

You should never willingly give authorities the power to know who you have met with, where you have gathered, where you have been, what you think. But I spent months behind the old Iron Curtain in the eighties and have seen where power of the State can lead (And that was after the jackboot pressure on citizens’ necks was partially lifted).

Let the current lock down measures work through, and lift them as soon as practicable, and not a moment later. And don’t let the politicians use this as an excuse to expand their power over you.

^this!

 

[ke-iron]

Hell no. Time after time governments around the world has openly showed us they cannot be trusted. Knowing Apple they will stand their ground.

 

[travelsheep]

I hope Apple will deny. COVID-19 the smallest impact of ALL infectious diseases ever and yet the biggest impact on "government restructuring", and finally the for 4 years dying media is king again, with the same or greater power as the potus himself.

 

[steve62388]

Let's not lump Apple and Google together here. Google is an ad company with a history of holding onto data and setting it loose to law enforcement. Try searching "Google tracked his bike ride past..." for the story of Zachary McCoy in Gainesville, FL, who was nearly arrested because location data placed him near the scene of a burglary. His real crime was using an Android phone.

They’re both working together on the protocol.

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

Apple and Google today announced a joint effort that will see them using Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the...

www.macrumors.com

 

[glowplug]

The agencies involved know these apps are only effective with extremely wide take up

These apps and contact tracing with phones in general is not effective.

 

[patent10021]

(All) of our governments are so f'd up. Every single one of them.

Unless some serious actions by people like the John Connors of this world take place, we are going to end up being a very messed up world/society or a completely obliterated one.

Some lives need to be ended because they certainly don't care about ours.

I certainly don't have the balls to do it.

I'm just a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.

 

[hagjohn]

Probably not a great idea.

 

[BvizioN]

Hmmm!
How about **** NO France?

 

[tCdemon]

Ummmmm...No way Jose!