Phone app

[jon_d]

I wouldn't trust the authorities with the app and or the data collected. Simple as that.

Plus the whole idea is flawed; how often do you spend 15 minutes or more next to a person and stay with in "blue tooth" range? It's just an authoritarian tracking tool.

Plus plus, now they are talking about ensuring there is legislation to stop the 'non health' authorities from accessing the data. Even they are recognizing the temptation will be too great..... trouble is; laws and legislation seem not to stop organizations accessing your private data.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/fede ... 54m6e.html

[native pepper]

NP.... I think in many respects you & I may think/feel similarly about many things, based upon what I have read of yours recently, but when you wrote "The reason I see it as not speeding up things is because it's an after reaction, not a before reaction. What's the use of recording peoples activities after the event, that does nothing but give more control to authorities" I think you may have misunderstood what the tracer app is intended to do.

Cuppa, would agree with you if this app did something good for society. However they are already capable of tracking and finding people. The link to the article below tells how it really is and you can bet it's not even half of what they can do with peoples phones and data.

"Police can access metadata from mobile phones and monitor bank card use to check if Australians are breaching coronavirus lockdown orders - even without the TraceTogether app."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -data.html

They call it a tracing app, but to trace is also to track, as you have to track them to trace them. What good is knowing after the event, how do you know who is carrying the virus that you many run into. This app will not only identify you, but everyone you come close to and if they have yet to be tested or diagnosed it will make no different to the spread of the virus in any way, Just like a dog chasing it's tail, you will never catch up, so the app is a tracking app and one that serves no real purpose other than to be able to track non infected peoples movements and whereabouts.

If the app warned people they were getting close to carriers, or the infected, then it would be a good app. But to make it that good, you'd have to have virus testing app, or a notification app that warned people they were in a close proximity to contamination. Cops and authorities already have the resources and ability to keep track of those infected, adding more controls, will just provide means for corrupt cops and bureaucrats to use it illegally, as we already see happening with lots of things cops have access to, the average person doesn't have.

They say it is open source, but the company who tested it has admitted the government would not give them the full code, so they could only test what they were provided with. It wouldn't take very long for them to add to the app and any android/linux person who is into coding, could track anyone's ph with it anywhere on the planet.

If your Ph used Ubuntu touch, they couldn't track or intrude into your ph at all. But it runs on so very few phones, yet has solved the one system on all devises that windows/apple have been striving for and failed.

[Noggins]

Personally I'm still undecided whether to download the app or not.

I can "root" my phone and have almost full control of its operation so removing it doesn't bother me
Then I recall that all servers are to keep their metadata for 7 (?) years
So anyplace I was at in the time I allowed the app to run is on record for as long as the metadata is stored.
So any Bluetoothed carrier/suspect I came near, as well as tower locating my phone is on the files for 7 ( maybe ) years.
Remember Bluetooth range can be up to 30 meters so it's not just who stood 1 mtr away from you.



Anyway, as I said
I'm not decided yet

Ron

[BernieQ2]

Nup not on our phones .
If the person who has this virus is not on their phone appy thing ????. the app only works on known infected people .
Bernie .

[T1 Terry]

First, can I ask that we avoid getting too personal and political on this forum when it comes to any political leaning, too many things are said in the heat of battle that do serious inter-personal damage and not easily forgotten.
If you want to have a political rant, use Farcebook or insta twit or what ever app, that is not the sort of nonsense we want on the forum, so please, if you can't keep it nice, keep it off the forum.

As far as how I personally feel about the app and trusting the govt, the age old oxymoron comes to mind "Trust me, I'm from the government." After the debacle with the Federal Police doing what turned out to be an illegal raid yet still holding the information they took illegally, I think it would be very naïve to think or believe that tracking information would not be used by all and every govt dept that thought it might be useful and I can't trust any govt dept to keep information they collect secure from hackers.

I'll give you a recent example, I have now received tree separate phone txt's regarding contacting an "agency" that wants to set up payments for me regarding anything from Job Saver, access to my super which incidentally I don't actually have any, special payments from Centrelink because I am now unemployed and another to set up a pension for me because I have a disability ....... and one for jobactivegov.au/jobseeker. One of the contacts was Margaret's doctor's surgery, I've never been there but my number is listed as a contact for Margaret. The others were linked back to Centrelink, but they are the ones who refused me a pension on 3 separate attempts. The latest that says it was from Centrelink says that Centrelink told them I was on an exemption, but I should still sign up to what ever private job finder agency ...... So my information isn't safe with Centrelink because someone has accessed it, why would the information collected about people I had come in contact with be any safer? or for that matter, where I had been and how long I was there?

T1 Terry

[Busman]

Bit of a surprise from some of you.

I would guess that most here are what the porn sites call "matures" ?
Surely you have the most to lose ? Like your life ?
Or a continued existence with kidney, liver and brain damage, as well as stuffed lungs ?

I would suspect that those being most vitriolic would somewhat change their opinion if their loved ones were the victims of a terrorist attack. They would perhaps be screaming " why was the gov not doing anything " ?

This app is supported by the Council for Civil Liberties, who do recognise the value of protecting life as we try to get back to "normal" as quickly as possible. Pretty big step for them I guess.

People who have been identified as infected are tracked, manually, right now, to try and protect the rest of us. Yes it is an after the moment app, but I don't know of any apps that predict future events, however when you think about it, events being logged on your phone may very well affect the future of you and yours ?

[BernieQ2]

There's a post on CF saying the government has out sourced the app to Amazon ????
Now I wouldn't trust them with O U R personal information .
Bernie .

[native pepper]

Bernie, it's been reported on the ABC as well. Reading the article is pretty frightening and means anyone who downloads this app, will be giving amazon their data, which will be stored overseas along with the decryption keys. Now if that's not deluded insanity from our leaders, don't know what is. Anyone who thinks amazon will keep it all safe forever and not use it, when they also have the decryption keys, has rocks in their head.

"Government insiders and technology industry players have raised alarms about the Federal Government's new COVID-19 tracing app, after a contract for its data storage went offshore to US retail and technology giant Amazon."

"ABC News can also reveal the Government has plans to store the decryption keys for the data in the same cloud as the data itself a practice frowned upon within the industry for such a sensitive cache of public information."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-24/ ... p/12176682

[Busman]

Just watched a press conference where all this was reported on, there is already Australian data on AWS so why the worry. I agree it should have been an Australian company, but the data will be held here, nit in the US according to the gov

[Dot]

I would like to see everyone have a tracking microchip implanted from birth , this world is getting sicker and sicker and I think how different things would be for the parents of missing people eg Peter Falconio, Madeline Macan? the Beaumont children, Daniel Morcom, and little "spiderman" his name escapes me for now just to mention a few.Might even been able to find Harold Holt I know I know bring on the civil libs PC ers I'm off now