Tech giant downplays location and Covid-states leakage concerns
Security researchers have gone public with troubling privacy issues in Google’s support for contact-tracing apps that they claim can expose users’ information.
AppCensus, a privacy analysis company, discovered the shortcomings of the Android implementation of the Google-Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) framework as part of a US Department of Homeland Security-funded program.
The team disclosed the issues to Google in mid-February. Google, however, rejected the vulnerability report, prompting AppCensus’s decision to go public with its concerns in a blog post on Tuesday (April 27).
Losses and GAENs
AppCensus is at pains to stress that it has no issue with Covid-19 contact tracing apps per se; rather, it’s the Google implementation of what was supposed to be a privacy-preserving technology it has concerns about.
(Photo by Jam STA ROSA / AFP)
According to Interior and Government Undersecretary Bernardo Florece Jr., the online application would pave the way for fast and efficient tracing of contacts of a person with suspected or confirmed coronavirus infection.
The online contact tracing tool will include the Google Apple Exposure Notification (GAEN) system, that will inform uses of potential coronavirus exposure, according to the DILG official.
“Ang timeline naman namin dito ay next month, by May full rollout na ito sa lahat ng gobyerno at sa ating LGUs at sa ating mga establishments (Our timeline is by next month, by May, there will be a full rollout in the entire government, local government units and our establishments),” he said during an online press briefing Monday, April 19.
Jeffsetter Travel
With Hawaii’s contact tracing app now available statewide, Maui requires the AlohaSafe Alert App for all visitors to the island. This is in addition to all other requirements, including pre-travel testing.
AlohaSafe Alert App Requirement
Since last fall, travelers to Hawaii have been required to obtain a pre-travel test before boarding their flights to the islands. The system, however, is quite fragmented. For example, on the Big Island, you need to take a second test on arrival, while Kauai is temporarily not participating (for good reasons). And, now, Maui is adding its own requirements as it battles its own significant surge too.
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Location tracking apps. Spyware to enforce quarantine. Immunity passports. Throughout 2020, governments around the world deployed invasive surveillance technologies to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.