Drag Facebook up, assuming you are still using it, and type “COVID-19 sensor” in the search bar. This should give you a list of public messages where people – not a small number of people, mind you – swore up and down that their phones were recently updated with a “COVID-19 tracker” that can tell them when ” they ‘been near an infected person.
We all know it’s a huge exaggeration of what’s actually going on, but that’s never stopped anyone from posting something stupid on social media, so here we go. The full text of the copy-and-paste task looks like this:
FYI: Did you know that a ‘COVID-19’ sensor is secretly inserted in every phone. Apparently when everyone had a phone call earlier this week, they fought COVID -19 tracker on our phones
If you have an Android phone, go to settings, search for Google settings and see if it’s there.
If you use an iPhone, go under settings, privacy, then health, it is there, but not yet functional. The app can notify you if you have been near anyone who has reported COVID-19.
Do not turn it on because you will be tracked everywhere, but once you have updated your phone, it will be turned on automatically on our phones.
Where to start. I think I will start with the most obvious advice: If you are worried about companies following your location, I have bad news for you. Your device, apps, and services are explicitly designed to find out where you are, what you’re doing, and how that can be used to serve you more relevant ads and content. we have bedutsen this one extensive, and it’s known that companies have a variety of tools to get a rough idea of who you are, where you are and what you want to do on your device – if not the internet at all. That’s the price you pay for all the free services you enjoy.
So, if you are super concerned about privacy, your first thoughts should not turn to all things coronavirus. You will probably need to switch to a dumb phone or at least do everything you can to protect your device’s settings so that you share so little about yourself with these companies. That will not stop them from breathing even more information about you, but it will at least make less of what they can do and, if nothing else, make you feel a little better.
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How the Exposure Notifications API really works
Now, back to COVID-19. No, your smartphone does not have a COVID sensor or a built-in COVID tracker. What it could have, via updates to the operating system, is a new API for exhibition notifications. And if you have that on your phone, and only that, nothing has really changed about your privacy between now and pre-pandemic times.
Let’s dig a little deeper. The Exposure Notifications API requires that your device is running at least iOS version 13.5 or Android Marshmallow (version 6). It is innocent in itself. Google and Apple do not use it to kill you if you are infected with the coronavirus – through your texts, your health information, your email, or any other conspiracy theory. The government also does not tap on your phone to learn about your health or to track your exact movements. (I hope.)
To use the aforementioned exposure notification API, you would need to download an app that taps into it. Otherwise, the API does nothing by default. Currently, only a handful of these apps are available in the US, and they are all tied to specific geographies. In other words, it will not do your California self very well, say, download and install The Virginia app that uses the API.
But even if you the download an app for your location, you still need to sign in to give said app access to the API. If or when you do so, your phone will be able to notify you as well as others who have the API nearby. That sounds a bit off “Omg enge location tracking ahhghuhgh1! 1!, ” I realize, so let’s figure out what that means. As Google describes:
- “This technology only works if you decide to take it. If you change your mind, you can turn it off at any time.
- The Exposure Notification System does not collect or use the location of your device. It uses Bluetooth, which can be used to detect when two devices are close to each other – without revealing where the devices are.
- Any exposure notification agreement happens on your device. The system does not share your identity with other users, Apple, or Google. Public health authorities may ask you for additional information, such as a telephone number, to contact you for additional guidance.
- Access to the technology will only be granted to apps of public health authorities. Their apps must meet specific criteria regarding privacy, security and data usage. ”
Of course, people who post junk science on social media are probably not interested in hearing from any of the very companies responsible for the exposure notification API about how it works – collusion theories are what they are. But that is, in fact, how it works.
Installing an app that uses the API does not suddenly send your location to a giant database that is then used to track your whereabouts; armed doctors will not slam your door and shove hydroxychloroquine pills down your throat. Your health insurance will not suddenly track down your rates because they have somehow, mysteriously, found that you have coronavirus or have been exposed.
What happens if someone has COVID-19, including you
If you come in contact with someone who has COVID-19, here you will be informed and what data may be shared:
“Once you sign up for the Exposure Notification System, it will generate random IDs on your device. To prevent tracking, change the random ID of your phone every 10-20 minutes.
Your phone works in the background to share these random IDs via Bluetooth with the phones around you that also have exposure notifications. If your phone detects a random ID from another device, it registers and stores the ID on your device.
If someone reports COVID-19 and their ID is stored on your phone, your app will notify you of the next steps to take. “
“Public health authorities of governments determine what factors can give exposure.
If your app learns that you have been in contact with someone reporting to them that he has COVID-19, the system can share information with the app, including:
- The day the contact happened.
- How long did the contact last.
- The strength of the Bluetooth signal of that contact.
Your public health authority app is not allowed to use your phone’s location.
The exposure notification system itself does not use your location or shares the identities of other users with the app, Google or Apple. ”
As yes are infected, you will be responsible for self-reporting this status in each app you use. You can be a joke and say nothing; You can uninstall the app directly. You can do whatever you want. It’s only your personal sense of right and wrong that goes to the point – your healthcare provider will not rate you and send all your information, including your real-time location, to everyone else using whatever app tracing app your state offers.
(That sounds silly, I know, but I’m just moving forward with ‘spying on meeeee’ audiences.)
And even reporting on your status is not just a “tap on a button and now I have COVID” kind of a deal – at least, not for apps that give a shit about useful tools for the general public. As COVIDWISE of Virginia describes:
“Laboratory results for all individuals who test positive for COVID-19 will be sent [Virginia’s Department of Health]. This is not associated with the app. Our staff follows up with individuals reported as positive, based on information provided in the laboratory report. As a courtesy to all app users, VDH will check positive tests and then provide COVIDWISE users with a personal identification number (PIN). You must use that PIN to report a positive result to the app. This prevents people from reporting false positive results, which can generate false exposure descriptions. VDH wants all app users to be aware that if a possible COVID-19 exposure is received through the app, that it is a real event. “
Most people will not use a contract tracing on her phone though
That, that’s it. While there is a lot to woroughly with smartphone privacy, I do not think the API for exposure notifications is the hill on which you want to die. I also do not think this will happen dat big of a deal up front, because there simply is not enough of a universal mandate for everyone to use their phones to combat COVID-19 exposure.
But even that brings us into an awkward privacy trade-off. While I would absolutely love it if Google and Apple mandated the use of this API on all phones, and even activated a matching (privacy-oriented) app on everyone’s devices, while we’re in the middle of this nasty pandemic, dat would be a concern. Even if the move were made in the interest of the general good, it would still feel like too much of a big bang. And I would understand a collective concern, even one based on a complete misunderstanding of how technology works, surrounding mandated digital tracking to combat extreme stupidity of coronavirus.
Of course, we let all kinds of apps regularly leak data from our devices, and that doesn’t seem to really bother most people. Maybe I think too cautiously, and an API and contacting app can be no more worries than a brand new social network like popular game. If those do not give you the fear of privacy, why should you worry about something you try to keep healthy and safe?
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