[liberationtech] Strength of Political Action, In The Era of COVID-19... More Theatrics & Side-Shows.

[Richard Brooks]

I had similar concerns. I also was immediately
nervous about big tech doing this.

I then realized that they have all the data
anyway. This is probably the least bad thing that
they are going to do with it.

"How I learned to stop worrying and ..."

On 4/24/20 2:29 PM, msunet wrote:
> There was some talk about this at the Flatten the Curve Summit. At
> first, I thought this technology would be interesting, but now I have
> doubts about it. It doesn't seem very useful to trace people if you
> can't test them, first of all. I also wonder how the random numbers are
> generated -- will they use your device or advertising ID? How can you
> tell when they embed this technology in their proprietary, secret OSes
> anyway? I also haven't seen what the authentication layer is -- will you
> need a google account? -- or more generally, how they plan to protect
> the system from attackers. It's also not clear to me who owns the data,
> where it is stored, how much of it, or for how long. And when does the
> tracing end? They also have not solved fundamental problems about this
> tech, like signals going through walls.
> 
> Unless these and other questions are answered (maybe they have and I
> haven't caught up), this just seems to me like an attempt by
> corporations to use the situation as an excuse to creep in more into
> people's lives. It never hurts to remember that they are powered by
> profit, not good will.
> 
> On April 23, 2020 7:01:37 PM PDT, "Robert Mathews (OSIA)"
> <mathews at hawaii.edu> wrote:
> 
> 
>     On 4/23/20 5:26 AM, David Stodolsky wrote:
> 
>>     This appears to be virtue signaling. France is asking that the
>>     Apple/Google tracing security be relaxed.
>>>     https://apple.slashdot.org/story/20/04/21/2019202/france-says-apple-bluetooth-policy-is-blocking-virus-tracker#comments
>>>     <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__apple.slashdot.org_story_20_04_21_2019202_france-2Dsays-2Dapple-2Dbluetooth-2Dpolicy-2Dis-2Dblocking-2Dvirus-2Dtracker-23comments&d=DwMFaQ&c=Ngd-ta5yRYsqeUsEDgxhcqsYYY1Xs5ogLxWPA_2Wlc4&r=V-iMGiA8Z-z_leHLkLSzXQ&m=1UUH9eOltaAPSUdTtOKTK8wH6ws-MQUbG4Ac_auCdJ4&s=HA0muQHuHH31W1WZw0ZUdLoorMjmeoPDcTks1KDy4v8&e=>
>>     It appears that France has developed a slightly less secure
>>     tracing method than the coming Apple/Google API/OS built-in. The
>>     current limitation is that Apple doesn’t allow Bluetooth to run on
>>     the iPhone, if the app is in the background and the data leaves
>>     the phone. This has crippled TraceTogether, etc., since it makes
>>     tracing impractical with the iPhone.
>>
>>     dss
>>
>>     David Stodolsky, PhD                   Institute for Social
>>     Informatics
>>     Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
>>     dss at socialinformatics.org <mailto:dss at socialinformatics.org>     
>>         Tel./Signal: +45 3095 4070
> 
>     Notions of *'contact tracing'* must be considered in broader
>     'technical' and 'technological' terms.   For instance, consider this
>     following headline, which I have been discussing with my team since
>     its publication.
> 
>     *"2 billion phones cannot use Google and Apple contact-tracing tech
>     System developed by Silicon Valley relies on technology missing from
>     older handsets."*
>     TIM BRADSHAW, FT.COM - 4/20/2020, 12:29 PM
>     *arsTECHNICA*
>     https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/04/2-billion-phones-cannot-use-google-and-apple-contract-tracing-tech/
>      
>     MANY such subscriber-linked mobile handsets in-service are located
>     within *the Continent of Africa*, and the *Indian Sub-Continent.* 
>     And, they are MOSTLY NOT - iPhone 10s.
> 
>     Of this, I shared the following sentiment with my staff and extended
>     teams....
> 
>         //This story SHOULD teach us that, no matter how LARGE any
>         "tech" company may be, if those human beings WITHIN are NOT
>         disposed to understanding "SYSTEMS" more wholistically (a widely
>         abused term), products born out of this lack of understanding
>         cannot be expected to meet basic aspects of
>         //////functional//ity////.  ///It also goes without saying that
>         SYSTEMS so constructed can also 'not' be expected to
>         'INTEROPERATE reliably' with OTHER systems of a LIKE, and/or
>         UNLIKE construction too./
> 
>     In this respect at least, and more importantly, taking note of the
>     UNIVERSALITY of COVID-19, backward operational compatibility and
>     INCLUSIVITY should have been critical 'usability' considerations.
> 
> 
> -- Sent from /e/ Mail.
>