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Because this is unprecedented news. Especially for a company that touts privacy over all else. Apple has decided to give up a fair amount of privacy for a bigger cause by making this opt-out.
Is it really opt-out? Or did MR make it seem like it is? There may be a splash screen to opt-in.
 
Most notably, you have to have the setting on AND and app installed for it to work. So, two layers of protection as I see it.
That's a good point. One (of many) issues I see with this though...is that I read yesterday that in terms of iPhones...this only works for 6s and newer. There are a LOT of people who still have a pre 6s phone. That fact alone...lowers effectiveness of this.

One of my other issues...is Google's involvement. I would hope that Apple's hard stance on privacy will rub off on Google and kind of forces Google to remain honest/transparent. Given how much Apple touts privacy and the respect they have for it...they actually have a LOT to lose in terms of trust if something goes wrong. I honestly would have felt better about this if Google wasn't involved. (But that also then introduces the problem of limited availability).
 
Why would I want to be alerted of this anyway?
You may be infected without knowing it (yet) and spreading the virus to other people around you. An exposure notification would be a good indicator that you should get tested. Contact tracing per se is a good thing, we just have to be careful that it's done without big brother methods.
 
People clearly don‘t see that governments and companies don‘t need this feature to know where you are. The already have lots of other ways to achieve that.

This feature was conceived with privacy in mind and really has the goal of helping people. Please read up on how this technology actually works before you post your claims here.
 
You may be infected without knowing it (yet) and spreading the virus to other people around you. An exposure notification would be a good indicator that you should get tested. Contact tracing per se is a good thing, we just have to be careful that it's done without big brother methods.

I would agree only under the conditions that we didn’t have the governments and companies which we have.

I would still personally argue that HIV/AIDS is a far more justifiable cause for contact tracing. Yet even then it is hard to justify using our phones to alert others of our health state or be alerted of others’ health state. And the fact that more serious conditions like AIDS haven’t gotten techno-tracking, it makes it suspicious that COVID would be reason enough to institute this.
 
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I thought this was opt in? Now we have to opt out? Not updating iOS. Screw the whole thing.

It is opt-in ... you have to download the app and each country will probably have their own app. All that apple provides is the API to write the app, but the app is NOT part of t he OS, only the infrastructure to write the app and to access the info that is otherwise not accessible!
 
Wow some of you get really barred up...

Your health is important. It’s far more important than what anyone/company can get from having this button switched on.

Health is most definitely important. But you don't think it's a slippery slope to certificate of movement? Proving your last 14 days of movement to get on a plane, enter a grocery store, etc etc.

No way once this API goes live, it wont be used until the end of time.

When has the Government ever given back "rights" after an event has ended? (see patriot act)
 
The OS provides the BT beacon functionality and collects the random IDs broadcasted by other phones around you. However (if we believe Apple) an app will be required to do anything with the collected data.
And while I enjoy using Apple products, I don’t believe Apple, Google, etc. You are simply money to them. Nothing else.
 
I think a lot of people here don't get the difference between an API and an app. Apple is providing the API, governments or health organizations will write the apps using that API. It is the user that decides if they want to install the apps. If they install the app they can at any time turn the notifications off if they want to (by going into the system settings, independent from the installed app). Nothing is force-fed to your precious iPhone, nobody is invading your privacy, you are in control if the app gets installed. Apple is just making sure via that API that privacy invasion is kept at a minimum. Thank you Apple.
 
Amazing that people freak out over a technology that doesn't use location data and is designed to maintain privacy, while simultaneously using carriers that have been literally selling their location data to advertising companies and who knows who else for all these years...

Also I just discovered you can block people on this forum, which is very convenient!
So because you don’t agree with them you block them. Why bother being here then?
 
Let's hope this works. Contact tracing is a key element to fighting this virus!
Is it?
Fighting any virus only has two options:
  1. Group immunity
  2. and when that fails, have a cure
Tracing infected people is reactive with the caveat that the Covid-19 virus can be transmitted by people who don't have signs of being affected themselves. Thus tracing on a massive scale is providing a false sense of safety and control.
 
Nobody is pointing out the very real possibility that individuals are going to say they have a positive test result when they haven’t even been tested. Some will do this because they simply want to freak out other people or be a nuisance. Others will do so because of their political agenda, because they wish for the lockdown to be extended. The whole process is based on the honor system. This will not work as intended.

^^^^^^^this^^^^^^^^^
human kind is strange like this.
 
I would still personally argue that HIV/AIDS is a far more justifiable cause for contact tracing.
Last I checked there was no global HIV pandemic. HIV is far less contagious, and there are good therapeutics for AIDS now (which enable people that have the disease to live an almost normal life). There nothing that helps with COVID-19 yet.
Yet even then it is hard to justify using our phones to alert others of our health state
That is not what this system is designed to do. It's supposed to notify only you and then give you the option to act on it. The critical question is whether it can be abused for more nefarious things.
 
Because this is unprecedented news. Especially for a company that touts privacy over all else. Apple has decided to give up a fair amount of privacy for a bigger cause by making this opt-out.
It is opt-in ... you have to download the app and each country will probably have their own app. All that apple provides is the API to write the app, but the app is NOT part of t he OS, only the infrastructure to write the app and to access the info that is otherwise not accessible!


So what is Apple doing with the data they are getting if you dont install the app? Makes you think. If you switch it off in settings, is it really off or off until next day?
 
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