Tag: google

Built in the Operating System

With their operating systems, Google and Apple build in surveillance for tracking spread of virus

Google and Apple add to geolocation tracking with more detailed tracking of person-person interaction. They will able to track proximity of individuals with Bluetooth. If an individual is COV-19 positive, then that individual and the others would be notified.

They say that the data will be anonymized and stay on the phones and will not collate into the rest of their data. Given the safeguards, this seems like a reasonable response.

From a profile of Roger McNamee

Much of this data [from Android] is collected even when a phone is off-line, then uploaded to Google’s servers and integrated into an archive that includes your search, Gmail, and Google Docs history. The Android platform finds information in your apps and your online activity, and often makes this information available to third parties, like advertisers. A user agreement also gives Google Assistant the right to record conversations that occur within earshot of the device’s microphone.

From Brian Barth’s New Yorker profile of Roger McNamee