in the movies mass surveillance embodies
government overreach but now
surveillance for the good of Public
Health has arrived in the form of
contact tracing apps digital contact
tracing tools offer the opportunity to
tress larger numbers of contacts in a
shorter period of time this creative
innovation may be just what the
government needs to aid in efforts of
contact tracing one app you need some
cash Elfi not well you I don't exactly
but if things go so far we've seen
essentially government's exploits the
spread of a public health crisis to
basically accelerate the erosion of
civil liberties and privacy an
investigation by Amnesty International
security lab revealed serious privacy
and security concerns with some
countries apps in state are you sleeping
so sensitive requires an enormous amount
of delusion software the authorities to
make sure that is being used
appropriately and the ones most
concerning from a human perspective
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amnesties investigation found a number
of issues with the technology and design
choices of some apps the most troubling
thing I suppose is the extent to which
this app start collecting information
about people's and people's movements
that might extend beyond what seem to be
strictly necessary some of the apps were
essentially able to live stream to a
very high accuracy the location in GPS
coordinates of of the device and
therefore of the person and people's you
know essentially daily lives
amnesty carried out a detailed technical
analysis of eleven
mainly in the Middle East North Africa
in Europe the app from from Bahrain gap
from q8 and including also yet from
Norway all seemed to show some
properties that were concerning from a
privacy perspective and from a human
rights perspective and the bottom line
is that all three to conduct that
aggressive location-tracking many
contact tracing apps just use bluetooth
to help keep track of who you've been
close to but tracking people's movements
using GPS as well like qh Sonic and
Norway's middle stop app sting can be
more revealing data it is being
collected from these apps are able to
see where you are when you are in
potentially you know aggregate that data
from others and see who you are with at
any point in time so it's a very
excessive and aggressive measure
unlike other contact tracing apps that
anonymize uses Bahrain q8 and Norway's
apps link uses two identities through
phone or ID numbers accessing this much
data could help these governments track
and contain the spread of the disease
quickly as part of an effective pandemic
response but there were other issues of
amnesty found within these apps for
example some countries have gone for a
decentralized approach where contact
tracing is processed on the user's phone
and personal data remains on the device
but amnesty sane Norway Bahrain and
Kuwait saps
automatically upload an amass any
collected data to centralized
servus a design choice which could pose
a security risk
we've seen issues update on are being
properly handled which could potentially
lead to severe privacy violations of
everybody using these apps especially
stores that make it mandatory Qatar is
one country enforcing the use of it's a
Tara's app by law with heavy fines
otherwise but amnesty found a weakness
that left over a million uses data
including their name ID and health
status exposed to cyber attackers after
being alerted by amnesty the Qatari
authorities rushed out an update fixing
the floor further worries also come from
where else the data created by these
apps could end up been a delegate on our
broth and be a master of the mutant
Academy that was cybot often has mother
Missoula and Corona the most surprising
shared use of this personal data to be
found a Bahrain TVs Game Show
are you at home to encourage downloads
users are automatically entered into the
game show although they can now opt out
one is thing called at random and it
found to be at home and compliant with
the rules they can win a thousand do
none and the no documents telephones
while arson maracas my telephone
negative on our way a little bit
onl I know on Dickenson scheduled for
application
mooched miy much tomorrow I feel like a
military affect me but I should say more
do the LG hotel mikasa
ticket directed equipment a little
beyond us but incentivizing people in
this way to use the app as privacy
advocates worried it's definitely one of
the new tactics employed by governments
to kind of make their way into people's
into people's pockets the issues
uncovered by the investigation that
raise privacy and human rights concerns
particularly for countries in the Middle
East there's a very long history of the
Gulf not upholding human rights at all
when you equip a repressive state with
the means to surveil an entire
population whether it's in the name of
Public Safety or not you can be certain
that it's only going to enhance their
means of control and repression to then
track down dissidents or anyone that
they consider to be a public threat in a
lot of places like the Gulf that means
activists the biggest concern though is
whether these apps will outstay their
welcome as the pandemic recedes
historically there's been no incentive
for governments to limit their overreach
into people's privacy on the contrary if
you take a look at 911
the aftermath of that essentially
ushered a new era of surveillance in the
name of protecting citizens and this
time is no different governments are
already looking at uses for these apps
outside of pandemic control in Hangzhou
China authorities are looking into the
idea of giving its citizens and helped
score an idea which for now receives
strong pushback from netizens on social
media in Norway you don't have to go to
extreme measures to protest against the
app you can just come right out and say
it
although I understand program an app in
there they are Courbet marketing yeah I
saw that they shall be controversial but
the people in Bahrain and Kuwait the
experience is very different the engine
will Mohammed mohali and Heart
Association Angela and Allie earth and
maqam al arabiya well hopefully son if
you want to generate idea relax with you
in a slow part and mahalia critique on
forgive of evilly say since the BBC
spokes in a way about armistice findings
the Norwegian government said they have
temporarily suspended its to stop app
and deleted all the data it collected in
a letter to the BBC the Norwegian
Institute of Public Health said they
would be looking at other solutions like
the decentralized Bluetooth contact
tracing model developed by Google and
Apple and being used in Germany and
Ireland amnesty says this solution is
less concerning privacy wise cat house
Communications Office told the BBC
we are constantly upgrading the platform
to protect data privacy and mitigate
security risks data is strictly
restricted to relevant specialists
Public Health teams and will be stored
only as long as the app and contact
tracing program are required to combat
the virus Bahrain and Kuwait did not
respond to the BBC's request for comment
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