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Cool, updated the beta and disabled. Thanks for the help. This should be turned into a TV commercial and broadcast, lol.
 
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 has been pointed out numerous times. And designing an app to use the APIs that simply had a "press here to say you're infected" button would be foolish, because of this. Various ways to implement this reasonably have been floated, one being, if you test positive, you are given a QR code along with the test results - you scan that code with the app to indicate to the app that you've tested positive. The QR code would include some sort of cryptographic hash off of a secret not released to the public, and the app would reject the QR code if it doesn't validate. So, if the apps running on top of the API are properly implemented, no, they won't be based on the honor system.
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Why would I want to be alerted of this anyway? I’d rather get sick and deal with it, rather than have an alert and maybe a person I can point my finger at. Can I sue them and their insurance to cover my healthcare, similar to a car accident?
"Me me me". Maybe give a care about the rest of the people in society, instead of just yourself. You clearly don't understand how this system will work, or the actual ramifications of it. You won't get a person to point a finger at, the system has been specifically designed to make that impossible - more evidence that you haven't looked at how it works.

If you get notified that you may have been exposed, get yourself isolated away from everyone else, and get tested. We don't want you potentially infecting anyone else. This is not about you, this is about society as a whole. Stop being paranoid and selfish.
 
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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.

I'm sure our governments have good ideas on how to use this thing.
 
Because [in America at least] we have a right to privacy.
Sadly we don't. The US has no privacy laws to speak off (with the exception of the CCPA in California). It's a bit better in many EU countries.
Now that I am looking at the picture, how the hell are the anonymous beacons "anonymous" if they change frequently? There has to be some reference record to notify the appropriate people and pair contact data.
The IDs are generated from keys that in turn are derived from other keys that are randomly generated daily. You can find more details in the Cryptography Specification here:

 
My only qualm with this is I don’t see contact tracing ever going away. They say it’s for COVID-19, then they’ll tell us it’s to assist with the next inevitable pandemic, but it will mostly be a way for big tech/governments to justify monitoring the movement of all of their citizens and inevitably abuse that privilege in nefarious ways, a la China‘s CCP.


I agree it is a disgusting abuse of privacy.
Also I am MORE shocked that the apple faithful here who champion privacy are openly welcoming this big brother 1984 backdoor.
 
Of course this tech will never go away. Easy to get in, impossible to get out and one day mandatory. If people fall for it, they deserve what they will get in the future which mean less and less privacy with more creepy "features" (state wide facial recognition and all). There is no limit to tech hubris and its unstoppable hunger for data.
 
So now we have a slider button that is a placebo to give the illusion of privacy.....
Such dumb comments around here.
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I agree it is a disgusting abuse of privacy.
Also I am MORE shocked that the apple faithful here who champion privacy are openly welcoming this big brother 1984 backdoor.
No entity or government can track anything about you using this technology. Read the damned spec.
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Of course this tech will never go away. Easy to get in, impossible to get out and one day mandatory. If people fall for it, they deserve what they will get in the future which mean less and less privacy with more creepy "features" (facial recognition and all). There is no limit to tech hubris and its unstoppable hunger for data.
Apple and google have already said it will go away. Try reading the spec and their announcement.
 
I agree it is a disgusting abuse of privacy.
Also I am MORE shocked that the apple faithful here who champion privacy are openly welcoming this big brother 1984 backdoor.
This is clearly opt-in and opt-out. Nothing says you have to use this feature. I applaud google and apple for attempting to use technology in a privacy focused manner to help mitigate the spread of covid-19. Of course, YMMV.
 
I hope it's disabled by default on the final release. Apple has always offered privacy by default and you had to opt in if you wanted to. I think contact tracing has potential to be helpful in this situation but I can see it being used by governments in other situations. Remember because it's being used for a cause you support today doesn't mean it won't be used for a cause you don't tomorrow.
 
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And you truly believe it ? By the (long) time it could be removed they will find a justification for it to stay.
Of course I truly believe it. Only conspiracy-addled nutbags would doubt it.

And even if it’s left in, who cares. Nobody can track you with it. Read the damned specs.
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I hope it's disabled by default on the final release. Apple has always offered privacy by default and you had to opt in if you wanted to. I think contact tracing has potential to be helpful in this situation but I can see it being used by governments in other situations. Remember because it's being used for a cause you support today doesn't mean it won't be used for a cause you don't tomorrow.
No you can’t see it being used by governments, because it can’t be. No information about you is sent anywhere. It can’t be used to track you as you move about. That’s not how it works.

Read. The. Spec.
 
The "panic" will come when you get a notification that sometime in the past, who is now sick, was close enough to you to potentially infect you
Exactly why it will be off for me. Unless you tell me the context of the interaction (time, location, duration) so I can judge what kind of exposure I had, it’s useless panic.
 
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This has been pointed out numerous times. And designing an app to use the APIs that simply had a "press here to say you're infected" button would be foolish, because of this. Various ways to implement this reasonably have been floated, one being, if you test positive, you are given a QR code along with the test results - you scan that code with the app to indicate to the app that you've tested positive. The QR code would include some sort of cryptographic hash off of a secret not released to the public, and the app would reject the QR code if it doesn't validate. So, if the apps running on top of the API are properly implemented, no, they won't be based on the honor system.
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The delusional paranoia in this thread is really disheartening and will prove a significant impediment to getting this pandemic under control in a timely manner.
Your concerned fellow humans are not the problem. The common enemy is government (now enabled by private industry collusion). The pandemic will be “under control” when the vast majority get mildly ill (or not at all ill) and we have herd immunity. Protect the vulnerable and return the rest to a slightly modified normal where people take reasonable precautions like not touching their face and washing their hands.
 
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