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dr tech

Apple and Google block NHS Covid app update over privacy breaches | Coronavirus | The G... - 0 views

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    "Ministers have paused a planned update to the NHS Covid-19 app after Apple and Google blocked it from their stores over privacy violations. The app, which aids contact tracing in England and Wales, uses technology built by the Silicon Valley companies to track interactions between users with their bluetooth signals and venue "check-ins"."
dr tech

NHS coronavirus app: memo discussed giving ministers power to 'de-anonymise' users | Wo... - 0 views

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    "A draft government memo explaining how the NHS contact-tracing app could stem the spread of the coronavirus said ministers might be given the ability to order "de-anonymisation" to identify people from their smartphones, the Guardian can reveal. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced on Sunday that the UK planned to introduce an app that would enable people who developed Covid-19 symptoms to "anonymously" alert other users to whom they had been in close proximity. "All data will be handled according to the highest ethical and security standards, and would only be used for NHS care and research," he said."
dr tech

North Dakota's COVID-19 contact tracing app leaks location data to Foursquare and a Goo... - 0 views

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    "The app, called Care19, and produced by a company called ProudCrowd that also makes a location-based social networking app for North Dakota State sports fans, generates a random ID number for each person who uses it. Then, it can "anonymously cache the individual's locations throughout the day," storing information about where people spent at least 10 minutes at a time, according to the state website. If users test positive for the coronavirus, they can provide that information to the North Dakota Department of Health for contact-tracing purposes so that other people who spent time near virus patients can potentially be notified."
dr tech

Norway suspends virus-tracing app due to privacy concerns | World news | The Guardian - 1 views

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    "Launched in April, the smartphone app Smittestopp ("infection stop") was set up to collect movement data to help authorities trace the spread of Covid-19, and inform users if they had been exposed to someone carrying the virus. On Friday, the data agency Datatilsynet issued a warning that it would stop the Norwegian Institute of Public Health from handling data collected via Smittestopp."
dr tech

Wuhan Kids Give Bad Ratings to Homework-Assigning App to Remove It from App Store - 0 views

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    ""Somehow the little brats worked out that if enough users gave the app a one-star review it would get booted off the App Store. Tens of thousands of reviews flooded in, and DingTalk's rating plummeted overnight from 4.9 to 1.4. The app has had to beg for mercy on social media: 'I'm only five years old myself, please don't kill me.'""
dr tech

Mandatory Student Spyware Is Creating a Perfect Storm of Human Rights Abuses | Electron... - 0 views

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    "Spyware apps were foisted on students at the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Today, long after most students have returned to in-person learning, those apps are still proliferating, and enabling an ever-expanding range of human rights abuses. In a recent Center for Democracy and Technology report, 81 percent of teachers said their schools use some form of this "student monitoring" spyware. Yet many of the spyware companies supplying these apps seem neither prepared nor concerned about the harms they are inflicting on students. "
melodyyy

Australia tests 'Orwellian' Covid app which uses facial recognition to enforce quaranti... - 2 views

  • Users will have 15 minutes, when the app pings them, to prove they are at their homes by showing the app their faces and giving it access to geo-location data. Should they fail to do so, the local police department will be sent to follow up in person.
  • “Location and biometric data is extremely valuable. Any government initiative that wishes to collect these types of personal information should have robust safeguards in place before it is rolled out, to ensure that information is not later used or disclosed for other purposes,”
  • According to its privacy statement, Home Quarantine SA will encrypt data “immediately upon submission” before sending it to an Australian server “under control of the Government of South Australia”.
dr tech

Hong Kong set to implement a China-style health code and contact-tracing app ... - 0 views

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    "However, the new government under the newly inaugurated Chief Executive John Lee is changing these policies and requiring real-name registration in the app, which some are concerned may pose a privacy threat. The city will also adopt a health code system similar to the one used in mainland China in a bid to curb the latest COVID spike."
dr tech

Contact tracing apps unsafe if Bluetooth vulnerabilities not fixed | ZDNet - 0 views

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    "As more governments turn to contact tracing apps to aid in their efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak, cybersecurity experts are warning this may spark renewed interest in Bluetooth attacks. They urge developers to ensure such apps are regularly tested for vulnerabilities and release patches swiftly to plug potential holes, while governments should provide assurance that their databases are secure and the data collected will not be used for purposes other than as originally intended. "
dr tech

Local health bodies and tech firms using AI to fight Covid-19, Tech News & Top Stories ... - 0 views

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    "The system uses AI to predict situations before they occur - thus informing on how resources could be better allocated - and to provide insights for better decision-making."
dr tech

Singapore looks to ease privacy fears with 'no internet' wearable device | ZDNet - 0 views

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    "The Singapore government says the wearable device it is developing for COVID-19 contact tracing will not have GPS, internet, or cellular connectivity, so data it collects can only be extracted when it is physically handed over to a health official. These details are being offered up as the government looks to ease concerns about data privacy and drive the adoption of digital tools that can help speed up contact tracing. "
dr tech

Chinese city may have used a COVID app to block protesters, drawing an outcry | The Sea... - 0 views

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    "Hu Xijin, a former editor of the ruling Communist Party's Global Times newspaper, warned that the use of the health code for purposes other than epidemic control "damages the authority" of the monitoring system and would chip away at the public's support for it. His post on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform, on Monday became a hashtag that was among the most-searched earlier this week, drawing 280 million views."
dr tech

Norway pulls its coronavirus contacts-tracing app after privacy watchdog's warning | Te... - 0 views

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    ""To my knowledge, this is the first instance in which a European DPA has imposed a ban on a contact-tracing app already in use in light of national developments regarding contagion levels," he told us. "It is thus possible that other European DPAs will impose similar bans in the future and demand that contact-tracing apps be changed as soon as contagion levels substantially decrease also in other parts of Europe. Norway has currently one of the lowest contagion levels in Europe.""
rrc123

Covid-19: How Technology Has Helped Countries Around The World Fight The Virus | Tatler... - 0 views

  • While many apps and related technologies are voluntary, other governments are enforcing their use, since health experts say at least 60 per cent of a population needs to activate them for contact tracing to be effective.
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    "While many apps and related technologies are voluntary, other governments are enforcing their use, since health experts say at least 60 per cent of a population needs to activate them for contact tracing to be effective."
yeehaw

CNA - On using TraceTogether data for criminal investigations: "I had not thought of th... - 0 views

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    "Vivian Balakrishnan on why he had earlier said that TraceTogether app data would only be used for COVID-19 contact tracing. The Home Affairs Ministry has since said the data could be used for criminal investigations."
dr tech

Coronavirus: Singapore develops smartphone app for efficient contact tracing, Singapore... - 0 views

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    "Dubbed TraceTogether, the app is able to identify people who have been in close proximity - within 2m for at least 30 minutes - to coronavirus patients using wireless Bluetooth technology, said its developers, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and the Ministry of Health (MOH), on Friday (March 20)."
dr tech

Singapore to require smartphone check-ins at all businesses and will log visitors' nati... - 0 views

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    "Singapore was one of the first nations to adopt a Bluetooth-powered contact-tracing app, fueling plenty of global debate about the best way to deploy the technology. SafeEntry will advance that debate as its introduction surely suggests that contact-tracing apps have their limitations."
dr tech

Contact apps won't end lockdown. But they might kill off democracy | John Naughton | Op... - 0 views

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    "There are clear indications that the UK government is now actively considering use of the technology as a way of easing the lockdown. If this signals an outbreak in Whitehall of tech "solutionism" - the belief that for every problem there is a technological answer - then we should be concerned. Tech solutions often do as much harm as good, for example, by increasing social exclusion, lacking accountability and failing to make real inroads into the problem they are supposedly addressing."
dr tech

Trolls exploit Zoom privacy settings as app gains popularity | Technology | The Guardian - 0 views

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    "But the default settings of the service are configured in the expectation of trust between participants, meaning trolls can wreak havoc. Some zoombombers have used the screensharing feature to broadcast pornography and violent imagery. "
dr tech

'More scary than coronavirus': South Korea's health alerts expose private lives | World... - 0 views

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    "As the number of coronavirus cases in South Korea exceeded 6,000 this week, there was a rise, too, in complaints about information overload in the form of emergency virus text alerts that have included embarrassing revelations about infected people's private lives."
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