Discussion

• NullTX JP Buntinx on x

  Apple's and Google's Coronavirus app Will not Allow GPS Location Tracking

• @ashk4n Ashkan Soltani on x

  @chrissyfarr NHS UK Security design doc outlines a ‘mass notification cascade’ vulnerability whereby malicious actor could generate fake exposure events on a large scale using the NHS COVID19 app. https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/... https://twitter.com/...

• @mattburgess1 Matt Burgess on x

  New: The Isle of Wight may be the testbed for the UK's contact tracing app but there are a lot of issues bubbling away below the surface. I've dug into them. Includes: mission creep, centralised vs decentralised, transparency + data modelling https://www.wired.co.uk/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  There is a very careful discussion to be had around how Apple and Google are imposing policy decisions as opposed to technical decisions with their contact tracing project.

• @jjvincent James Vincent on x

  The UK's coronavirus tracing app is next to useless: it only works on iPhones when the app is running *in the foreground* and requires contact with an Android phone to register any contact https://www.theregister.co.uk/ ... https://twitter.com/...

• @jamesrbuk James Ball on x

  The UK team is working flat out - and publishing elaborate public justifications - for an approach on their contact tracing app that we know and can see won't work. It is outright ridiculous. https://twitter.com/...

• @chanders @chanders on x

  @jamesrbuk Given the amount of time they spent on the EU national settled status app, which they couldn't even get to work on an iPhone, this is less than surprising.

• @psythor James O'Malley on x

  I note with interest that Australia has solved its similar iPhone/background running COVID app problem by... ...adopting the Apple/Google APIs that it should have used all along. Surely only a matter of time until Britain does the same. https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

• @ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x

  Hands on with the contact-tracing app. It's not exciting but then it's not meant to be - what we now need to know is what impact it will have on user behaviour. Will it provide too many false alerts or ping so infrequently it's not worth the bother? https://www.bbc.com/...

• @kenroth Kenneth Roth on x

  The British government seems to be moving toward a contact-tracing app that people probably won't use because it ignores current best practices on the right to privacy. https://www.theregister.co.uk/ ...

• @alexhern @alexhern on x

  Australia's covid contact-tracing app doesn't work on iPhones and won't work on iPhones until it is switched to a decentralised model. Exactly the same climbdown will happen in the UK in the next two weeks https://www.theguardian.com/ ...

• @dbanksy David Banks on x

  Will someone please ask a properly technical question about this at the press conference today? Don't let them off the hook with 'we've worked around it' - this suggests they haven't at all... https://twitter.com/...

• @themadhacker Martyn Davis on x

  @Techmeme @kierenmccarthy Same in Australia. What was: download, register & run, so community is safe, becomes: Download. Register. Run. Is it fully charged? Don't lock your phone. Leave app running in the foreground. Make sure nothing stops the app in your pocket/bag. #Simples h…

• @bbcr4today @bbcr4today on x

  Matthew Ryder QC, barrister @matrixchambers says “there needs to be a data impact assessment” on the contact tracing app. The Information Commissioner & public must know “why the NHS thinks it needs these extra interferences with our privacy”. #R4Today https://www.bbc.co.uk/...

• @ianclucas Ian Lucas on x

  I do find it ironic that Johnson, a vituperative opponent of ID cards, is proposing this. https://twitter.com/...

• @suzanneevans1 Suzanne Evans on x

  Hear hear. Thank goodness this is being challenged at last. Have been pretty shocked at how most media outlets have simply been lauding the app - including the BBC until now - and not asking this obvious question. https://twitter.com/...

• @profcarroll @profcarroll on x

  Also, not mentioned here, because NHS is not using Apple/Google OS level tracking features, the UK app will apparently need to barrage users with notification nudges to re-open the app which I'm sure will work out great. https://www.wired.co.uk/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  Apple & Google are imposing American values on the world by limiting the usefulness of contact tracing apps. The values aren't privacy, they're distrusting govt & the individual is more important than the health of society (see gun violence, healthcare) https://www.reuters.com/..…

• @techreview @techreview on x

  60% of Brits will need to download the UK's contact tracing app for it to be effective, according to an Oxford university professor who worked on it. The app also relies on self-reporting of symptoms, and could potentially contravene the UK's data laws. https://www.technologyrevi…

• @iwillleavenow Crypti-Calli on x

  I know this makes me extremely petty, but I love watching bad ideas fail. Look, I want the pandemic over as much as anyone else, but forcing everyone to sacrifice their privacy so they can use ineffective and badly-functioning apps is not the way to do it. https://twitter.com/...

• @southeast_cyber @southeast_cyber on x

  High level privacy & security design for NHS COVID-19 contact tracing app This technical document provides a high-level overview of the security & privacy characteristics of the app in development by NHSx, to help manage the COVID-19 crisis in the UK https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/... h…

• @mikebutcher Mike Butcher on x

  U.K. government seems not to care that this contact-tracing app won't work *most of the time*, because they've made a political decision that centralising (& modelling) the data is more important than stopping you getting sick. And then there's the below https://www.theregister.c…

• @ryanfduffy Ryan Duffy on x

  unfortunately, if contact tracing/exposure notification apps don't work while backgrounded, it essentially defeats the purpose. which is why some countries are coming around to Apple/Google's conditions https://twitter.com/...

• @carltonreid Carlton Reid on x

  “Herd immunity all over again.” UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal https://www.theregister.co.uk/ ...

• @genmon Matt Webb on x

  I have concerns with the centralised model - data from the public should be publicly-owned data - data from phones is easily de-anonymised - easily correlated for surveillance, adtech, etc - even anonymised, there are unknown unintended uses, the genie can't be put back

• @james_mayes James Mayes on x

  I'd rather stay in lockdown a few months more than see my health data in the hands of Palantir. The company seems to exist for the sole purpose of exploiting holes in privacy. https://twitter.com/...

• @genmon Matt Webb on x

  What are the odds that the data goes to Palantir so they can train, and then resell, their pandemic tracking models, and that's why they're only charging £1 for their U.K. services? https://twitter.com/...

• @caitlinmoran Caitlin Moran on x

  Every time there's a new story like this, I wonder, “When will Britain start getting angry with this government? What will the turning-point be?” If you pretend that a) you're a robot and b) no people are dying, it's fascinating to watch. https://twitter.com/...

• @jamesrbuk James Ball on x

  I'd say this was predictable, but it was *entirely* knowable in advance and quite a lot of us have been saying it publicly for quite a while, too. https://twitter.com/...

• @m_paulmcnamara Paul McNamara on x

  Who would have guessed that awarding the project on a “Mate's rates” basis would be suboptimal? https://twitter.com/...

• @rupertmyers Rupert Myers on x

  What's that? The government's app doesn't work as well as one being built by Californian tech giants Apple & Google working together? That can't be right... https://twitter.com/...

• @campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x

  In other words, the app was coded by a 12-year-old using a 2010 mobile dev tutorial and chunks of code copied from StackOverflow https://twitter.com/...

• @markpack Mark Pack on x

  This is very worrying: “The government's coronavirus contact tracing app has so far failed the tests needed to be included in the NHS app library, HSJ understands.” #NHSApp #ContactTracingApp https://www.hsj.co.uk/...

• @rupertg Rupert Goodwins on x

  As far as I can tell, the NHSX app It can't wotk well enough to provide useful data, only well enough to break the law. But Johnson will try to do the Nelsonian ‘England expects’ thing to guilt us into using it. Not buying it. Let's see some facts. https://www.theregister.co.uk/ …