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

[IIGS User]

And people bristled at the thought of the Patriot Act.

At least in 2001-2002 we weren't all carrying GPS enabled data trackers with cellular back haul that can read all our messages and emails and listen to our conversations.

Once this genie is out of the bottle, there's no turning around. But given the reaction people are having to the 'Rona, I suppose if you were gonna do it, now is the time.

I think it's time for a few games of Arkanoid on the ol' air gapped GS....

 

[123]

Read between the lines. It's not been reported because it's not significant.

Even if this were the case, because we don't know anything about it really we cannot draw any conclusions as to whether it would work in other countries and what would be necessary to make it work.

 

[123]

If you care to look at the numbers and the facts, and understand some of the modelling, you will know that an adoption rate of 17% cannot have a significant impact on control;

If only people with the app installed were allowed to go outside, those 17% would be 100% of the people who matter.

 

[cocky jeremy]

"No."-Apple

 

[H2SO4]

No way I would allow this to go off my device. If Apple allows this then I’ll block Bluetooth completely or go back to old iOS

Go back to old iOS?
Good luck with that unless you have a very old and working out of date iPhone.
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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.

Any more apart from that one?
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And people bristled at the thought of the Patriot Act.

At least in 2001-2002 we weren't all carrying GPS enabled data trackers with cellular back haul that can read all our messages and emails and listen to our conversations.

Once this genie is out of the bottle, there's no turning around. But given the reaction people are having to the 'Rona, I suppose if you were gonna do it, now is the time.

I think it's time for a few games of Arkanoid on the ol' air gapped GS....

I find it odd that people only focus on phones. Any computer surely has had the ability to do the same for ages, especially portable that power nap?

 

[Freida]

I do, iPhone 6

Go back to old iOS?
Good luck with that unless you have a very old and working out of date iPhone.
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Any more apart from that one?
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I find it odd that people only focus on phones. Any computer surely has had the ability to do the same for ages, especially portable that power nap?

 

[H2SO4]

I do, iPhone 6

Ooh Jeez. Not sure what's worse.

 

[glowplug]

You have data from the app released in Singapore that this is modelled on, do you? If not, you're making an opinionated assumption.

I know that bluetooth range is far greater than COVID-19 transmission range, so making the jump from bluetooth contact to COVID-19 infection is a huge assumption. And yes that is an opinion.

 

[Macyourdayy]

I 100% guarantee that they will use this app for non-COVID related tracking too.

France can shove it.

COVID-19 is the new Terrorism.
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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

Which would be why Apple, and encouragingly, Google, seem to have got in bed again (hopefully with heavy duty protection) to get in front of this looming privacy calamity.
This is a global version of the FBI “security” BS. This whole pandemic clusterfudge and the appalling mismanagement is really looking like an even more effective “terrorism” opportunity combined with the joys of the GFC, where the rich got even richer and the rest, screwed again.

 

[FriendlyMackle]

Controlled by Apple means it is one secretly issued National Security Letter away from being controlled by the US government. Nobody should have it.

Also—any 'privacy' that you may (still) have in the United States is just one Supreme Court ruling away from abolishment. Once you have allowed your information into the central database for any purpose, just accept that 'justice,' 'homeland,' and law enforcement will get their grubby hands on it. The change may come tomorrow, next year, or in 10 years. Every administration has the ability to wreak dangerous changes that can last for a generation.

 

[Tech198]

This is getting messy, everyone is branching out in different directions.. No one knows which way to go: local or centralized.

All in the while governments are not taking things better by constantly reassuring users "it's all safe"
?
Well, if it's all safe,then why do you want it?