Tech News: Are we "Big Brother" with the Covid Alert app?

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By Louis Fourie

JOHANNESBURG – Most people appreciate your privacy. Therefore, the existing debate on the new Covid-19 tracking app that the president suggested to citizens to download is expected to ensure that the country does not enter into a strict blockade.

A world plagued by terrorism and crime has tracked (selective) citizens through government agencies through cell phones and geolocation, real-time facial recognition, social media, phone calls, bills and many other means. Therefore, it is understandable that other people involved in your privacy and consult the avalanche of programs around the world capable of tracking contacts and detecting exposure to Covid-19.

Unfortunately, many of these programs and methodologies are not very transparent and are therefore suspicious because other people do not know how this will affect their long-term lives. It is not known what knowledge will be collected and with whom policies are rarely announced to prevent abuses during and after the pandemic, especially in countries plagued by corruption.

The fundamental generation used through programs varies considerably. Some apps identify a person’s contacts by tracking their cell phone’s movements through GPS knowledge or triangulating near cell towers and comparing them to other phones that have spent time in the same place. ‘tracking’, where cell phones exchange encrypted tokens with nearby phones via Bluetooth. This approach is less difficult to anonymize and is considered to offer greater coverage of the individual’s privacy than location tracking.

Apps in many countries rely on the app programming interface (API) developed through Apple and Google, which allows iOS and Android phones to talk to others via Bluetooth, allowing developers to create a touch tracking app that will work for both. use DPT-3T or decentralized proximity tracking that preserves confidentiality. DPT-3T is an open source protocol for Bluetooth-based tracking in which the touch logs of an individual phone are stored only locally, so that no central authority has access to the data.

Some of the tracking applications are more invasive than others, for example, the Chinese formula collects knowledge related to the identity, location and even payment history of the citizen so that the government can control compliance with quarantine regulations. It is known that if a user spends too much time in a store, they will follow a government scale. In China, he looks like “big brother. ” But it seems that Kuwait’s Shlonik app has been even more invasive since it was named by Amnesty International as the world’s greatest invader.

Other programs pose serious privacy and security issues, so the Smittestopp app has been disabled in Denmark and Norway. The StaySafe app in the Philippines has also caused serious privacy issues, leading citizens to request greater coverage from giant organizations. it has been raised about the BlueZone app in Vietnam, which requires contacts from users and other media on their mobile devices, such as photos. In Indonesia, the PeduliLindungi app collects individual location knowledge and sends it back with the knowledge of telecom providers related to location, calls and SMS. Iran’s AC-19 app has been banned through Google Play for gathering more knowledge than necessary.

In many countries, programmes are mandatory. In India, the Aarogya Setu app is mandatory for citizens, as is the Ehteraz app in Qatar. However, the Ehteraz app also requests photos of the individual. In Turkey, only other positive-marking people are legal to install the Hayat Eve Saoar app. Knowledge is then shared with the police. In the UAE, citizens are fined if they do not install and log in to the TraceCovid app. In South Africa, the Covid-19 tracking app is only mandatory for visitors from other countries. Unlike most countries, Malaysia has been very transparent about its MyTrace application and launched the app’s open source for all to review.

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s touch seek cell phone app, Covid Alert South Africa, uses Bluetooth generation to alert users when they are in close contact with a user who has tested positive for coronavirus for more than 14 days. He also stated that “the app is completely anonymous, does not collect any non-public data and does not track anyone’s location. “According to the Ministry of Health’s Coronavirus website, the app is based on the Apple-Google Exposure Notifications Programmable Application Interface (API) and puts user privacy and security at the center of its design.

Given the other approaches and intentions of governments with tracking applications, it is understandable that an active debate accompanies the new tracking application announced through the South African government. This is even more understandable in light of several surveys indicating that government confidence is at a historic low due to the Covid-19 pandemic and corruption. People in South Africa simply don’t need to be watched by the government. As a result, many South Africans are naturally skeptical of the app due to disorders with the collection of personal knowledge.

However, a high-level legal suggestion took care of the application progression procedure to ensure that confidentiality issues were treated well in accordance with privacy law and to ensure compliance with the Popi Act.

It should also be noted that the application is absolutely voluntary, absolutely anonymous, collects very few non-public data and encrypts all data, does not collect any name, email address, phone number or location data, can only tell the user if they have been in contact with a user who has voluntarily revealed that he tested positive , does not tell you who the user is. It also does not tell the user precisely where the exposure took place, it only communicates that the user has been in close contact with a positive user on an express day to allow him to take quick action.

The app uses random Bluetooth identifiers, which rotate from ten to twenty minutes to save you tracking, as well as geolocation to collect a minimum of non-public user data, which is then stored on your mobile devices in a familiar style. as an identity of self-sovereignty. Generation is used to manage virtual identities, giving users how and how their non-public data is stored and used, as non-public knowledge is stored on their cellular device and not in a central government repository.

The Covid Alert app works much like the random number assigned to other people waiting in a queue. If random IDs 111 and 222 were in the same location at the same time and the following tests were No. 222 tested positive for COVID, user No. 111 will be informed of possible exposure without the application knowing the identity of user No. 111 or No. 222 or friends’ touch data of 222.

However, if a user declares that they have been diagnosed as positive, the app asks the user to enter their date of birth after receiving a PIN, to make sure that other people do not misuse the app. the user has been in contact with the user who has been exposed.

Large and tough organizations like Google and Apple also have very strict privacy compliance rules. Fortunately, the government app is supported through the exposure notification formula that was created through Apple and Google with a strong focus on not collecting location information or linking individual occasions with tap times.

It turns out that many of the false fears and warnings circulating on social media are incorrect and that downloading the app will mean combat opposing the Covid-19, however, the good luck of the Covert Alert app will rest and feature the breadth of The Early Exposure Notification is essential to involve this epidemic in the future.

There is a growing consensus that we want to use a combined strategy of medical and technological equipment to provide us with a reaction on a scale that can overcome the speed and proliferation of the Covid-19 virus. build and download the Covert Alert app to fight the pandemic.

Tech News: Are we “Big Brother” with the Covid Alert app?

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