Cars have to be equipped with things like anti-lock brakes, ESPs, reverse-driving cameras, but installing an app on your phone is too much?
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Virginia Releases COVID-19 Exposure App Based on Apple and Google API
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Why is it some people think that while running around with a cell phone on contract in your back pocket your somehow untraceable by authorities??? Lol. Are people really that dumb?
and of course all of these measures are there to make the public feel safer. Because there will be no economy if the public do not feel safe to engage in it.
the great philosopher “Mike Tyson” said “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.
I somehow don’t think you will be thinking about your civil liberties if you find yourself struggling to breat and your lungs feels like shattered glass.
would be nice if Australia changed our national app to use this solution. but our naive Dr Nick publicly stated they weren't considering changing it. even though the version they rolled out has proven ineffective and was abandoned for a while by the state with the most cases.
we are having a "second wave" of local transmission and a working app could make a huge difference.
another wasted tech opportunity but then our Apple Watches still don't have ECG enabled ... how many lives are needlessly lost due to that not being set up?
we are having a "second wave" of local transmission and a working app could make a huge difference.
another wasted tech opportunity but then our Apple Watches still don't have ECG enabled ... how many lives are needlessly lost due to that not being set up?
In the U.S., 79% of people do. So 1 in 5 don’t. And you don’t want them to be permitted to get COVID tests or eat in restaurants? Seems like a bad idea. (That’s assuming you are talking about the U.S. India has around 30% smartphone penetration. China has 55%. Since those are the two most populous countries, if you were to do the math you’d find that ”most” people do NOT have smartphones.
the article is about a state in the USA. if your going out for eat the chances are you have a smart phone. Especially the demographic that goes out to eat in restaurants.
Ultimately maybe you do maybe you don't, however, making it a requirement to have one on you isn't something that's realistic. Seems like people can't even get the more basic things down often enough, like just wearing a mask (if not even shirt/shoes/etc.).
Still surprises me that a portion of the population gets all bent out of shape about being required to wear a mask, but they have zero trouble with the fact that they’re required to wear pants. How come they’re not protesting at state capitals about that? It’s jut as big of an intrusion into their right as a mask is - they’re both clothing covering part of their body. Heck, pants cover much more.
Exactly. But you know these people aren't rational, if you force them to use an app it will just back their narrative.
In germany the app isn't mandatory and we already have about 17 million people using it.
What I meant by "not there to feel safe" is that the app is a reactive measure to detect infected people; an easy method to contact trace. It's a puzzle piece in addition to masks, social distancing etc.
I understand what you are saying. It may not be realistic being considering how everyone is mentally. However, we really are on a war footing here it’s just that some people have not realised it. So it would be good if people began to realise that your general freedoms need to be adjusted for the good of your fellow citizens, it being a “war” like situation.
And if you really don't have a (new enough) smartphone, one could always fall back on showing an ID (with verified contact data). Heck, these are private businesses, they can require all they want. If they serve alcohol, they already require an ID for some of their customers.
It's not a war. It's a pandemic. I know some leaders (US and France iirc) used that rhetoric, but it's complete nonsense.
It's the next 'best' thing to a war we had in a long time. It's not a war but it is the worst crisis bar a war for the last century.
I get you, but again: there is already a word for it: pandemic. There’s no need to use different, wrong description for it.
Maybe it’s a cultural thing, in Germany no one would call the handing of a virus war.
Everyone saying "why isn't the Federal Gov't doing this" .... HA HA. I mean, Come on! Have you seen who's running the Federal Govt and what that person thinks of Covid-19?
I agree that we shouldn't call it a war but using, careful, comparisons with wars can be useful as there a lot of things people associate with the term war whereas the word pandemic is drawing a blank with most people. To use Germany, they do call it the 'worst crisis since WWII'.
Well, in this particular case it's unrealistic beyond even the mental part (which is unfortunately hard enough, and often enough almost impossible, on its own). The overall idea is a good one, the particulars of its implementation is where a good amount of challenges and trouble lie.
By "war" I basically mean you are fighting a battle where the normal rules of engagement do not apply. A "war footing" in this context just means we should all be prepared to bend the existing rules and sacrifice our normal way of life for a time in order to win this battle.
The word "pandemic" in itself just means there's an outbreak of a disease and it's global. The word by itself does not really deal with the mentality needed to get through the problem. A "war footing" kind of does.
Although I do not have time to go into it in detail because I have actual work to do, I am nevertheless sceptical that a 14 day database with encrypted Bluetooth keys, even if rotated on a regular basis, cannot be exploitedTo show person-to-person interactions...
Browser fingerprinting and other weaknesses to encryption have shown how hard it is to anonymise data.
If anybody gains access to that database, which only the API on the phone has. And there of course situations where when other data is added people can be identified. Imagine you are alone in an isolated location and only meet one person per day. If you then get an exposure notification for a given day, you will know which person that was. And purely on the digital side there can easily be other interactions between devices (Airdrop might have an interaction log, devices connecting to the same network, etc.).
So, for once how well secured that database on every phone is matters (and unless there is an unknown security hole, it should be inaccessible). And if you physically follow a person you might be able to sniff out those identifier. And maybe if you have a large enough network of ‘sniffers’, you can piece together some of the interaction data (but there are plenty of other digital traces that phones might leave behind even before this system was introduced).
I realize this thread is a few weeks old, I came across this doing a search trying to figure out how to opt-in for my state. I am surprised that this isn’t more widely available by now.
Any other federal administration would have rolled this out at a federal level, or at least been actively helping states to roll this out. But when you have an administration that has said out loud they prefer less tests so there are less cases, then it’s obvious why contact tracing is being left to the states to deal with, much like anything pandemic-related is on the states.
When the governors do good or have positive news, the president is going to take full credit. When the states do something poorly or have bad news, the president is going to blame the governor.
I am shocked for our country has 5% of the world’s population and nearly 22% of the worldwide deaths. That’s the type of number I would expect from a third world country.
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Yep, DaringFireball yesterday quoting the data gathered by the Washington Post:
Italy: 3
France: 9
Japan: 14
Canada: 7
UK: 18
Germany: 3
United States: 974
Population of countries above: 439 million
Population of United States: 328 million
That’s 54 deaths for a collection of countries that together have a population one third larger than ours... and we have 18 times as many deaths. That puts us around 24 times their death rate.
He also points to another poll, showing 57% of Republicans think the number of US deaths from COVID-19 is “acceptable”, while 10% of Democrats do. Can you imagine what the Republicans would be saying if we had this response while a Democrat was in the White House? They’re still outraged that four Americans died in a terrorist attack Benghazi, and conducted endless hearings trying to find evidence of wrongdoing (they failed every time). Now we’re losing about a thousand every day. But apparently that’s okay.
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