The NHS contact-tracing app

Jonny Ingbar said:
I get peoples nervousness about their personal data, but ots already been shown how effective such technology can be, in North Korea for example.

Every one of us surrenders significant amounts of personal data on daily basis, Facebook, Google, web browsing all contribute, often to many users ignorance.

In any given normal day I'd bet most of us could be tracked through our phone usage, sat navs and other passive data collection anyway.

So given the stakes and that this will potentially save lives, it seems simple choice to me and a little deluded to think it would surrendering any more freedoms than we did long ago.
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You pays your money and takes your choice Jonny.

I have already said, with checks and measures I have no problem with this. I am not someone who gives up my data via tracking Jonny, but I accept the vast majority of people don't consider that and will be OK with downloading the app, regardless of how and what it records.
 
Laughing said:
You pays your money and takes your choice Jonny.

I have already said, with checks and measures I have no problem with this. I am not someone who gives up my data via tracking Jonny, but I accept the vast majority of people don't consider that and will be OK with downloading the app, regardless of how and what it records.
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I hope the majority of people do use the app because it will save lives, but I suspect this won't be the case (surveys suggest less than 50% will), because of privacy fears, when in fact most people will have already nwittingky provided far, far more data via other sources.
 
Laughing said:
I've answered this Sheriff, I don't know, but neither do you. However ask yourself these questions:

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Surely the trade off between not using every method possible to try to defeat the virus, far outweighs any concerns you have that you can't even specify. Not to mention the morality of unknowingly infecting people with this disease not having done everything you could to avoid this situation. I can understand concerns with security over criminal organisations accessing the data, but still can't come up with any plausible way they are going to use the data against me. Certainly not one which will outweigh the benefits. They are saying the reason the data will be collected centrally is to be able to conduct research into how this virus is spread. This again seems like a good trade off. Seeing how the virus spreads in reality is of far more use than laboratory experiments. The damn thing may not even work, especially if we can't get infections down to make contact tracing effective. I am concerned though that enough people will allow their distrust of anything tainted by government to undermine the usefulness of the app.
 
Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret said:
Surely the trade off between not using every method possible to try to defeat the virus, far outweighs any concerns you have that you can't even specify. Not to mention the morality of unknowingly infecting people with this disease not having done everything you could to avoid this situation. I can understand concerns with security over criminal organisations accessing the data, but still can't come up with any plausible way they are going to use the data against me. Certainly not one which will outweigh the benefits. They are saying the reason the data will be collected centrally is to be able to conduct research into how this virus is spread. This again seems like a good trade off. Seeing how the virus spreads in reality is of far more use than laboratory experiments. The damn thing may not even work, especially if we can't get infections down to make contact tracing effective. I am concerned though that enough people will allow their distrust of anything tainted by government to undermine the usefulness of the app.
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You may be right Sheriff in terms of benefits v risk. I would want to be certain of that calculation. Too much is taken on trust for my liking.

If you want an example of how this application could be abused I can give you examples. I don't know if the government has these in it's plans, but the platform doesn't rule them out.

For example, where I do my grocery shopping
Where do I worship
Do I break the speed limit when driving
Do I attend political rallies

The application is being set up to be able to record this information, and it is not necessary from an architectural perspective. So I, quite rightly, ask myself why.

If you genuinely believe this government, or perhaps any government wouldn't be tempted to abuse geo-location data it has access to, then you are more trusting than I.

These are not vague notions. It is how the app is currently architected, and it is open to abuse when it clearly doesn't need to be that open.
 
Is anyone surprised.

And it’s feared staff using the app’s chat function to talk about PPE shortages and to complain about employers could be open to reprisals.
 
Are there no depths this government will not stoop to? Still trust them with you're data unless you have something to hide.
 
It was clear that what ever this regime could do to recoup even a scrap of the money, then they would jump at it. To hell with things like privacy and common decency.
 
Hancock told HOC “According to a very early poll, 80% of people on the Isle of Wight want to download [the app]”.

Now transpires from fullfact.org that the poll he mentioned was a Facebook poll done by a local radio station
 
NYBoro, it won't be a worthwhile app this side of 2021, the government line is next week. The end of June is for the local manual track and trace to be fully up and running, no really, they said that! Apparently on a national level it is already up and running - what the F does that even mean?
 
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