How to Disable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications in iOS 13.5

[return2sendai]

Nothing about this on today’s iPadOS update: 13.5 (17F5054h)
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Mother Nature is all the help we need...but that help no longer has a chance.

“Mother” Nature? Be careful of your gender pronouns.
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I have no Settings>Privacy>Health>COVID-19 Exposure Notifications on my iPad running 13.5 (17F5054h). I have only Settings>Privacy> but no Health.

Is there an Apple Health app for iPad? If not, why not? If so, where?

 

[Rogifan]

I thought this was opt-in. Why is it on by default?

 

[hagjohn]

Nothing about this on today’s iPadOS update: 13.5 (17F5054h)
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“Mother” Nature? Be careful of your gender pronouns.
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I have no Settings>Privacy>Health>COVID-19 Exposure Notifications on my iPad running 13.5 (17F5054h). I have only Settings>Privacy> but no Health.

Is there an Apple Health app for iPad? If not, why not? If so, where?

You probably are not carrying your iPad around with you all time, like you do your phone, so it wouldn't be useful.

 

[Rocketman]

I am a bit of a privacy freak and my privacy has been violated hard core by close folks. Apple and Google have instituted at least 2 layer privacy so only people that SHOULD be notified of exposure to a pandemic will. I think with the less than 0.2% death rate, this pandemic is not the one I or you should worry about, but putting this feature in the OS in a way Apple blesses works for me.

From what I understand it is actually subject to HIPPA.

My links are dead till CV-19 is decreased. PM me to give me business.

 

[Diamond Dog]

I really, really do not like that this was on by default.

 

[nicolas17]

I thought this was opt-in. Why is it on by default?

I really, really do not like that this was on by default.

It doesn't do anything unless you install an application that uses it, and then you'll be asked to give that particular app permission to use it (like it does for GPS and notifications). Heck, maybe Apple should hide the setting completely if you don't have any app yet, to avoid that confusion.

 

[-DMN-]

Wait, they're putting this into the OS itself rather than as an app you have to choose to download?

AND they're making it opt-in by default?

**** that nonsense.

PREACH!!!

 

[nicolas17]

Wait, they're putting this into the OS itself rather than as an app you have to choose to download?

AND they're making it opt-in by default?

**** that nonsense.

No they aren't. They are adding an API to the OS itself, and letting governments and health organizations make apps that use it. If you don't download one of those apps, it doesn't do anything.

So it seems to be exactly what you want. An app you have to choose to download, and thus being opt-in and off by default.
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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.

If Apple says they can't track you, and they will turn it off when not needed anymore, and you don't believe it, then you don't trust Apple. Why do you have an Apple device if you don't trust them? For all you know they could already have evil tracking built into the OS since years ago. Throw your phone away.

 

[gnasher729]

What a crap, they backed it in the os source code. NSA has now full access, thanks apple!

Full access to what exactly? First, they don’t have legal access to anything. Second, they don’t have illegal access to anything. Third, if they had illegal access, they would have illegal access to random numbers produced by the phones of people infected with COVID-19. Nothing about people who are not affected. Nothing about anyone’s location. Not particularly interesting.
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I suspect they'll have a wizard like when you choose to send them analytics or not. Regardless, I can seen this causing a lot of panic when everyones phone goes off telling them they have been near someone infected. Or worse, a false sense of security when they have been near dozens of people with a old smartphone, feature phone, or no phone at all.

You going into panic when you have been close to someone infected is the intention. Well, not the panic, only feeble minded people will panic, but you going home and staying home instead of becoming a spreader.
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I thought this was opt-in. Why is it on by default?

Because Apple assumes you don’t want to be responsible for someone dying?

 

[fairuz]

Curious what the actual notification will include

„you may or may not have been in close contact with someone tested positive for the corona virus but we actually dont know exactly where and when. Please see a doctor who may or may not test you“

Yep, I already know I was in contact with a relative of someone who fell ill with Covid-19. Can't do anything about that. I'm already quarantined anyway.

Also, I can see this just showing positives everywhere. Seems it would've been more useful doing the containment stage, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt there.
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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!

Looks like it collects and shares the info regardless of whether you have an app installed, but I haven't read the spec. Personally I'm not very worried about this and would encourage everyone to turn it on if it were opt-in, but making this opt-out is really not cool and gives me the opposite feeling.

 

[MacHiavelli]

1. This is NOT about turning tracking on and off. It is about turning notifications off only. As the text says, Bluetooth will be sharing your IDs with nearby devices.

2. As the infographic for this API says, apps need the user’s consent to get “more information”. “More” means in addition to the Bluetooth information already being shared. It does NOT say that apps need consent to read Bluetooth IDs.

3. There is no setting to turn core functionality on or off. Consent will be given when users update the OS. After that, the only control users will have will be turn notifications on or off.

4. Turning Bluetooth off at a user level will not turn Bluetooth off at a system level: we know this as previous reports have shown background activity still occurs even with users turning their level of settings off.

5. While “more information” can only be shared with user consent, there is nothing to say that basic Bluetooth information can’t or won’t be shared with Apple, Google, governments, etc.

6. Plenty of people don’t have mobile devices. Will they be given free devices?

Privacy concerns to one side, I am against this kind of tracking for one main reason: like other poorly thought out and crass virtue-signalling ideas, it will cost lives, and I don’t want other people’s hardships, illnesses, and deaths on my conscience. A bad idea is a bad idea, even if the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way.

 

[dwaite]

The only thing your phone is reporting (to Apple’s secure servers, not the government) is your set of Bluetooth IDs, which change repeatedly and don’t store any of your personal information.

Not even that.

No information leaves the phone until the use confirms permission with the OS as part of them choosing to share that they tested positive. Even that requires you to install a separate local health app.

Until then, your phone anonymously downloads a list of randomized identifiers of devices belonging to OTHER people who have opted in to sharing that they tested positive. your phone can compare that locally and let an app report if you may have been near anyone - again, requiring the user to consent with the OS before letting the app see any information

 

[The Chosen One]

I have more faith in this app then all the half assed apps we got in development or planned in the Netherlands. All of which got nuked in to the ground based on privacy/security/etc when presented at an event.

 

[Rochy Bay]

Amazing how paranoid some people are about privacy. You think Apple would literally bale reporting features into the OS? This is a decentralized solution. The only thing your phone is reporting (to Apple’s secure servers, not the government) is your set of Bluetooth IDs, which change repeatedly and don’t store any of your personal information.

right, because they have a long history of really respecting anything. For example, they never created a bug for ios 7 facetime, they never slowed down iphones, they never violated patents, they never abuse or micromanage employees, and so on.

What is most concerning to me is how people don‘t realize that when they are using an iPhone, they accepted all sorts of analytics running and sharing in the background. Sharing your actual name becomes irrelevant when they allow your GPS location, photos, phone calls and numbers, purchases, and lots and lots of more personal information to be share with businesses worldwide. Businesses and developers then use all the apps analytics to study customers even more.

You are right in that it is not storing your personal information, it is actually mass spreading it to all other developers and companies 24/7. Just search app analytics.

 

[dwaite]

Hold up why are the instructions on how to turn off? Is it not opt-in for the beta?

There's four parts to the system:

1. phone broadcasts an identifier, it changes to a fresh random identifier every five minutes to prevent tracking. This is similar to how bluetooth broadcasts _already_ work on iOS, but is an extra identifier specific for this use.
2. other phones see that identifier and save it along with radio strength (to approximate proximity)
3. people who test positive can opt in to releasing the identifiers on days they were presumed contagious.
4. people can opt in to check their phone's local list against the identifiers belonging to contagious people's phones, to see if they were exposed (which may or may not mean they are infected/contagious).

#1 and #2 are at the OS level, controlled by this setting. #3 and #4 are provided by a health app in your local store, provided by some health authority. The opt-in to sharing information with an app is enforced by the OS, similar to say camera access. The apps are responsible for making sure you actually have tested positive (to prevent abuse/scare tactics) and to filter exposures which were too brief/distant to warrant notification.

Since your phone _already_ broadcasts an identifier when bluetooth and wifi are on (the randomized bluetooth address of your phone), there's not really a privacy argument to having this setting on (barring paranoia that the system does not work as advertised). No information leaves you phone until you allow it. Its designed to not impact power over normal bluetooth broadcasting, so at most you would have a tiny storage cost if you are in proximity to lots of cellphones (likely ~1KB for a phone in range for four hours).

This is why it is on by default. Apple and Google have both said this feature will be removed once it is no longer needed for COVID-19.

Leaving the setting on without any apps installed should still broadcast the information needed for you to decide later to share exposure information, even if you don't install the app until you get the test result.

Likewise if the setting is on, you might get notifications of exposure on days before you install an app once you opt in to checking against the list.
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Curious what the actual notification will include

„you may or may not have been in close contact with someone tested positive for the corona virus but we actually dont know exactly where and when. Please see a doctor who may or may not test you“

Pretty similar to the information they give with pen-and-paper contact tracing today. A bit of vagueness to protect the other person's privacy, a symptom checker, based on that a recommendation to either talk to a doctor or self-quarantine for a number of days.
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It should stop broadcasting your random IDs via BT (this can be verified using BT monitoring utilities) and collecting other IDs it sees. So far so good. However, be very careful what app you install if you want to use this. Any app that is allowed access to the data provided through Apple's API can easily upload it without asking first (and the upload is not hard to de-anonymize based on your IP address in many cases).

1. The OS requires user consent to get any information from the phone. Until the user opts in explicitly as part of a positive test result, no data leaves the phone outside random bluetooth broadcasts. You should presume as a user that data will be shared once you give the app access.
2. Apple will only approve apps from health authorities to be access this API (in the App Store and presumably in TestFlight). Apple and Google both have also dictated additional usage restrictions - signing/encrypting of data for authenticity, that the users can only opt in for sharing positive test results, presumably exposure notifications for people who were in proximity to someone who was contagious cannot leave the device, etc.

 

[kopaszmercis]

It is totally astoudning to me how many people don't get even the basics of what this thing is, yet have such a firm opinion on it. We are truly screwed. Please read this.

 

[cjbryce]

If you turn this stuff off will it still be tracking me and where I’m in contact with? There’s NO way that Apple/Google/Govt around the world could ever abuse this information.

Being a little analytical about this.

1) If they - whoever they are - could be bothered tracking proximity between two cell phones is trivial. This method may be more granular/accurate, but triangulation from towers also works.

2) The method suggested pretty much ensures privacy

3) Why is everyone in a tizz about an alert system that could a) save your life b) save someone else's life c) enable us to beat this damned virus and get out of lockdown before a vaccine is available?

 

[rlhamil]

I can't wait till headlines of this being offered by apple and google in conjunction with world governments goes mainstream on newsfeeds.

current conspiracies:

-5G
-Bill Gates
-Illuminati
-Vaccines
-Depopulation

and now
-Apple
-Google
-Big Brother

I don't like conspiracy theories either, at least not the ones that resemble dramatic fiction and hook a lot of folks that don't fact-check; there's enough real problems that they distract from, for one thing; and real conspiracies wouldn't be so obvious anyway, they'd be an accumulation of mostly banal and boring seeming misdeeds that even revealed would individually never get a headline - that sort of thing, if vigilance is lacking, is the real danger to liberty. For another, at first glance (and without reading the specs, and not having great expertise at analyzing them for potential abuses anyway), the Apple/Google approach seems better than having the data in a government-run database, as some European countries (and worse, doubtless most of the world's dictatorships) would prefer.

Nevertheless, anything that can be abused, will be. I hope this will be reset to default to off once the need is gone; notifications could then be sent out if some new need arose, for people to opt-in rather than opt out.

Also, the article isn't 100% clear whether this just turns off notifying the user or whether it also turns off the exchange of random IDs. I'm ok with playing along for a few weeks or months, but if I don't have confidence in that, I'll simply turn off Bluetooth whenever I'm not actually using it. I'll definitely remove whatever associated app applies for my area when the current situation is pretty much over. Since I go above and beyond with masks, sanitizing, washing, disposable gloves, etc, and am not out and about much anyway nor around others that are, I'm not super worried either for myself or for others.

Wait, they're putting this into the OS itself rather than as an app you have to choose to download?

AND they're making it opt-in by default?

**** that nonsense.

According to the article, the hooks are in the OS (have to be, to do it in a way that doesn't suck the life out of your battery) but even turned on, they aren't used either to send random IDs or to notify you if you might have been exposed, until you install an approved app that uses those hooks. In effect, you're only opted-in once you've installed such an app (and probably opened it at least once). Still, the optics would be better if such an app asked for the permission to turn on the switch (just like apps ask for permission to use location services, etc). Then again, maybe they do, over and above the switch that turns the feature off entirely. Won't know until I see it, and I'm not inclined to put a beta on my only active phone (not counting my watch).

 

[chucker23n1]

Why wouldn't you just control the notifications like you do for every other app?

This is probably the global switch to turn off collecting the data, on top of per-application switches. (Presumably, they get either a "this app wants to use Bluetooth" prompt, a "this app wants access to your health data" prompt, or even both.)

The benefit of this approach is that, as long as the setting is on, you have a backlog of data even if you don't have any app that presents or interacts with it; it can then retroactively access that.

 

[Osamede]

Guys, the settings control panel does not say this is a toggle switch for turning the neo-Stasi API on or off.

The control panel says your iphone is tracking you and sharing your "random ID" with others via bluetooth, and that what you are toggling is: whether or not you are being notified by any apps you might install. So other people are being given your "random ID" and the govt can collect that from them.

So if you happen to be a a political meeting of a group your govt doesnt like, the govt can send someone to attend this event and collect info on who is there.

Good luck if you think this ends any other way but dystopia...

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

Amazing how paranoid some people are about privacy. You think Apple would literally bale reporting features into the OS? This is a decentralized solution. The only thing your phone is reporting (to Apple’s secure servers, not the government) is your set of Bluetooth IDs, which change repeatedly and don’t store any of your personal information.

Its frightening how uneducated people like you are but have a strong opinion. Apple has everything from you no upload needed. They HAVE your serial, userid Clearname and Credit Card data, now they get every contact from you , which you admitted.

Bang ! They shot you down ... bang bang ... the data’s Stolen ...

 

[Osamede]

"Approved apps by health authorities"?

Who is "health authorities"? A government agency. WHo does what the government says?

If you think the government spies are going to ask you to use their "Spy-on-me App". As opposed to shoving a "For Health Reasons App" at you....you'd have to be really very naive...

Mind, you like I said, the same government who wants to track you with "health app" would never ever agree to install this app on all government officials phones in order to clean out corruption by tracking who they are meeting with.

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

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.

I should report you because you insinuate I haven’t read all the documents which I have.

so you make false claims on purpose to underline your personal position!
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Please back that up with some proof.

easy ... ask Apple, it’s in the source Code, comes as an iOS update.
Per law nsa has access to data, they killed aussange for showing us - what further proof do you need?

 

[ericwn]

I should report you because you insinuate I haven’t read all the documents which I have.

so you make false claims on purpose to underline your personal position!
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easy ... ask Apple, it’s in the source Code, comes as an iOS update.
Per law nsa has access to data, they killed aussange for showing us - what further proof do you need?

Thank you for confirming that you’re not available to back up the claim. Source code goes to the NSA? And then what, Elvis reads it together with his alien friends? Assange dead? LOL thanks for the chuckle.

 

[Chlloret]

Why wouldn't you just control the notifications like you do for every other app?

You do. In the app. Like with every app. This is the api, its not doing anything without the app. There is no reason to switch it off from the privacy point of view, its benefit is mainly for yourself but hey, Apple put in a switch anyway.
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If you turn this stuff off will it still be tracking me and where I’m in contact with? There’s NO way that Apple/Google/Govt around the world could ever abuse this information.

On or off it can and will not track you. Read the specs.