U.S. Government Exploring Ways to Use Smartphone Location Data to Track Coronavirus Spread

[Yammabot]

Another egregious attempt at illegal surveillance under the guise of helping the public. Absolutely disgusting!

 

[mi7chy]

These measures are only good for reporting and not prevention. You could be resposible and proactively avoid public exposure ahead of government guidelines but all it takes is one irresponsible relative, family member, etc. to infect you. Much like people knowingly share their STDs, HIV, etc. Unless you lock yourself in a silo it's futile. You will get infected so hope you've built up immune system.

 

[jchap]

South Korea, Japan, Israel, and China are already using smartphone tech to track COVID patients.

I live in Japan, and I'm unaware of any efforts made by telecom providers (including the Big Three—Softbank, AU and Docomo for starters) or by the Japanese government to track the spread of the virus, at least in any way that would require the cooperation of their subscribers or of the public on the whole. There may be some downloadable apps available, but there are no enforced measures being taken that I have heard of.

 

[Optheduim]

When did we become China? I strongly disagree with this, whether it’s anonymous or not.

 

[acorntoy]

Hell no. If it’s that severe issue a mandatory quarantine for the country, then you’ll temporarily know where everybody is - their house.
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South Korea, Japan, Israel, and China are already using smartphone tech to track COVID patients.

If you want COVID to spread, then don't lockdown. Don't track. Body temp is also "private" information, right? So is whether or not you test positive, right?

The rights for the US government to start collecting and using all this data is very very murky unlike other countries. However the US does have vast powers of quarantine built in to the framework of our country. Force everybody to stay home, and you don’t need to collect personal information.

 

[imnotthewalrus]

The data is anonymous.

"aggregate anonymous location data"

If it were only that simple.

 

[Appleman3546]

Anonymous data to track whether individuals with or without the corona virus social distanced themselves...seems like a contradiction

 

[fairuz]

No matter what your stance is on government surveillance, you have to recognize that this will freak enough people out that they'll start calling the disease a hoax (well, even more than they already are). Shutting things down and telling people to stay apart should work by itself.
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The data is anonymous.

"aggregate anonymous location data"

Tech companies have broken that promise plenty of times, even if by accident. What makes you trust this statement that nobody can verify?

 

[MacTiki]

The people behind the curtain know to never let a crisis go to waste.

We lost all illusion of privacy after 9/11.

I shudder to think what “we the people” are endanger of losing this go around.

 

[fairuz]

South Korea, Japan, Israel, and China are already using smartphone tech to track COVID patients.

They don't need to.

 

[DaveN]

Yup. Why test people when you can track them like the big brother you claimed everyone should fear.

 

[DoubleU]

They will not know the name of the person whose location is your home address for approximately 12 hours a day and your work address for approximately 9 hours a day.

 

[Vjosullivan]

ah uh....... So, location tracking is considered bad for companies to do, yet when its in the interest of "potentially saying lives" it's considers good ? And now we are just suppose to "trust" what we have always feared by the governments, Facebook, and Google?

What kind of world do we even live in?

One where people believe more in conspiracy theories than solving problems.

 

[dazz87]

MMmmmmmm perfect timing for something like this.......

 

[Ramchi]

In India they tracked the mobile phone location of the infected person who recently visited Europe which helped to quarantine nearly 1000 people who came into contact with that person and helped preventing the spread! This was probably few weeks old news!

 

[212rikanmofo]

Oh God, I can see where this is leading towards to. Coronavirus is the propaganda that they needed to excuse and justify their actions to spy on us. Like they say, create the PROBLEM, then FEAR, and then SOLUTION. No thanks. I've completely deleted facebook out of my life for years now, and slowly with Google as well.

We're slowly losing all our rights and freedom. Say NO to this! Enough is enough.