General / Off-Topic The safest place

[Ian Skippy]

Then again, with the Netherlands and Belgium being hands-down the most densely populated country in Europe (after mini-countries Monaco, Gibraltar, Vatican City, Guernsey, Jersey and San Marino) we have our hands full with our own situation.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Wild stuff: Maryland governor has to use the National Guard and State Police to protect their COVID19 tests kits from being nicked by the federal government.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has National Guard protecting coronavirus tests from feds

Gov. Larry Hogan is very protective of his state’s coronavirus tests. The Republican has deployed the National Guard and state police to keep the federal government from seizing 500,000 COVID-19 te…

nypost.com

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Then again, with the Netherlands and Belgium being hands-down the most densely populated country in Europe (after mini-countries Monaca, Gibraltar, Vatican City, Guernsey, Jersey and San Marino) we have our hands full with our own situation.

Monaca, Gibraltar, Guernsey and Jersey?

 

[Ian Skippy]

Monaca, Gibraltar, Guernsey and Jersey?

Ugh: monaco obviously. :/

 

[Morbad]

The saddest part is, if we would have know how bad this was going to be for the elderly would could have likely saved a lot of those in the 80+ category.

We knew. While there are some notable exception, most illnesses of this sort hit the elderly the hardest, and the earliest credible data out of China clearly showed that COVID-19 was no exception. Indeed, the perception that it was only old people dying and that they were probably going to die anyway is probably significantly responsible for a lagged response.

A quicker response on containment would have saved a lot of lives. Carefully considering what's done next will save, or condemn, a lot of lives.

 

[Stealthie]

I see the UK government has rejected offers, by Google and Apple, to create a C19 tracking app' and is planning on creating one independently.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I can't help thinking that if I was a government official, I could think of all sorts of underhanded uses for an app' like that.

I'm sure it could prove very useful if, for example, the cops could access a person's C19 tracker and establish that their phone was moving at 48mph while they were shown as being on a road with a 30mph limit.
Or, more directly related to C19, if the app' could track a person's movements and automatically flag-up anybody who's spending an "unacceptable" amount of time away from their home.
And I'm sure the police would be just as interested in a record of where you've been, and who you might have met, as any doctor who's dealing with C19.

Certainly won't be instaling any kind of tracking app' on my phone.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I see the UK government has rejected offers, by Google and Apple, to create a C19 tracking app' and is planning on creating one independently.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I can't help thinking that if I was a government official, I could think of all sorts of underhanded uses for an app' like that.

I'm sure it could prove very useful if, for example, the cops could access a person's C19 tracker and establish that their phone was moving at 48mph while they were shown as being on a road with a 30 mph limit.
Or, more directly related to C19, if the app' could track a person's movements and automatically flag-up anybody who's spending an "unacceptable" amount of time away from their home.
And I'm sure the police would be just as interested in a record of where you've been, and who you might have met, as any doctor who's dealing with C19.

Certainly won't be installing any kind of tracking app' on my phone.

Google is way ahead of them...

 

[Factabulous]

I see the UK government has rejected offers, by Google and Apple, to create a C19 tracking app' and is planning on creating one independently.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I can't help thinking that if I was a government official, I could think of all sorts of underhanded uses for an app' like that.

I'm sure it could prove very useful if, for example, the cops could access a person's C19 tracker and establish that their phone was moving at 48mph while they were shown as being on a road with a 30mph limit.
Or, more directly related to C19, if the app' could track a person's movements and automatically flag-up anybody who's spending an "unacceptable" amount of time away from their home.
And I'm sure the police would be just as interested in a record of where you've been, and who you might have met, as any doctor who's dealing with C19.

Certainly won't be instaling any kind of tracking app' on my phone.

Paranoia - it's a killer.

 

[Gortron]

I really don’t get this obsession with testing ‘key workers’ our government and more so the media keep banging on about. Heath care workers; absolutely yes. For the rest of us I don’t get why it is so important. It’s only for people with symptoms or family members with symptoms.

Half the country seems to be trying to get tested. I’ve not seen a single person on TV that’s moaned about not being able to get a test, that actually appears to be ill.

It’s like bog roll stockpiling all over again imo.

 

[Wotthe Dickens]

I see the UK government has rejected offers, by Google and Apple, to create a C19 tracking app' and is planning on creating one independently.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I can't help thinking that if I was a government official, I could think of all sorts of underhanded uses for an app' like that.

I'm sure it could prove very useful if, for example, the cops could access a person's C19 tracker and establish that their phone was moving at 48mph while they were shown as being on a road with a 30mph limit.
Or, more directly related to C19, if the app' could track a person's movements and automatically flag-up anybody who's spending an "unacceptable" amount of time away from their home.
And I'm sure the police would be just as interested in a record of where you've been, and who you might have met, as any doctor who's dealing with C19.

Certainly won't be instaling any kind of tracking app' on my phone.

There’s a techy who’s reverse engineered the Aussie version of the covid tracker app and published his findings on twitter which is an interesting read.
I hope someone does something similar for the uk version when it becomes compulsory

https://twitter.com/x/status/1254336105203200000

Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/matthewrdev/status/1254336105203200000?fbclid=IwAR23Iv-hUDFVsjttWeDrAdcZe9TT8xSADp4KJF67dJp9WRCkNwU9gUPRr1M

 

[Gortron]

I see the UK government has rejected offers, by Google and Apple, to create a C19 tracking app' and is planning on creating one independently.

Maybe I'm just being cynical but I can't help thinking that if I was a government official, I could think of all sorts of underhanded uses for an app' like that.

I'm sure it could prove very useful if, for example, the cops could access a person's C19 tracker and establish that their phone was moving at 48mph while they were shown as being on a road with a 30mph limit.
Or, more directly related to C19, if the app' could track a person's movements and automatically flag-up anybody who's spending an "unacceptable" amount of time away from their home.
And I'm sure the police would be just as interested in a record of where you've been, and who you might have met, as any doctor who's dealing with C19.

Certainly won't be instaling any kind of tracking app' on my phone.

No they haven’t. The NHS wants a centralised database so they can work out how the virus is spreading and Apple and google want a decentralised system to prevent government’s abusing the data their systems could perverted for.

 

[Gortron]

NHSX differs with Apple and Google over contact-tracing app

NHSX has chosen to take a ‘centralised’ approach to collecting data on potential Covid-19 contacts, compared to Apple and Google’s ‘decentralised’ approach.

www.digitalhealth.net

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Ugh: monaco obviously. :/

I figured but the others aren't countries.

 

[sewerratuk]

Just out of interest, for those not living in the uk, how is the uk response and situation being reported in your media?
I remember not too long ago, the uk media were reporting with horror the Italian situation for example, but I’m not seeing much about our home grown situation in those terms now.

Funny thing is that the media are happy to report the ineptitude of the government to lock everyone down sooner and in the next breathe they are pressuring them on an exit plan to get everyone working again.
People love to criticise

 

[Patrick_68000]

Wild stuff: Maryland governor has to use the National Guard and State Police to protect their COVID19 tests kits from being nicked by the federal government.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has National Guard protecting coronavirus tests from feds

Gov. Larry Hogan is very protective of his state’s coronavirus tests. The Republican has deployed the National Guard and state police to keep the federal government from seizing 500,000 COVID-19 te…

nypost.com

A civil war on the horizon ? With the break-up of the United States ?



---------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Synkreto]

Paranoia - it's a killer.

Just because you're paranoid
don't mean they're not after you .

 

[Stealthie]

There’s a techy who’s reverse engineered the Aussie version of the covid tracker app and published his findings on twitter which is an interesting read.
I hope someone does something similar for the uk version when it becomes compulsory

https://twitter.com/x/status/1254336105203200000

Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/matthewrdev/status/1254336105203200000?fbclid=IwAR23Iv-hUDFVsjttWeDrAdcZe9TT8xSADp4KJF67dJp9WRCkNwU9gUPRr1M

TBH, I'm more concerned about secondary purposes the overt data could be used for than the possibility of covert data being collected.

I mean, if it turned out that the app' is logging your phone-calls or browser history that'd obviously be cause for complaint.
I'd be very surprised if that was the case, though.

It's more the fact that governments don't seem to be able to help themselves when it comes to appropriating data for authoritarian purposes.
Give them a means of tracking a bunch of people and they WILL, sooner or later, use it for other purposes.
And that's when they're not selling your data to third-parties or leaving it in taxicabs.


Couple of years ago I was working in Spain, where they have toll-roads which you can pay for via an RFID doodad in your back window.
I fly home to the UK, for a holiday.
I get a phone-call from the British embassy, telling me that the Spanish police want to interview me and they're concerned I'd "fled the country".
I explain that I'll be back in Spain in 10 days and arrangements are made.
When I get back, Spanish cops meet me at the airport, arrest me and the Brit embassy sends a lawyer too.

Turns out there was a fatal accident on a road where I was, apparently, driving that involved a "pick up truck".
The cops just used the data from the toll-road to check every vehicle on the road at that time, noticed I was driving a Toyota HiLux and that I'd left the country 2 days later.
Apparently, that was enough for them to issue an arrest warrant and contact the Brit' embassy.

So, having ruined my vacation, been arrested at the airport and got 2 embassies involved, it took about 2 minutes, back at my place of work, to show them my HiLux, in all it's shiny, undamaged, glory.

Providing governments any information that they don't have a specific, justifable, need for is not something I approve of.


Also, can't wait to see this tracker become "compulsory".
I look forward to making use of my shiny new government-issue smartphone and data-plan.

 

[Synkreto]

TBH, I'm more concerned about secondary purposes the overt data could be used for than the possibility of covert data being collected.

I mean, if it turned out that the app' is logging your phone-calls or browser history that'd obviously be cause for complaint.
I'd be very surprised if that was the case, though.

It's more the fact that governments don't seem to be able to help themselves when it comes to appropriating data for authoritarian purposes.
Give them a means of tracking a bunch of people and they WILL, sooner or later, use it for other purposes.
And that's when they're not selling your data to third-parties or leaving it in taxicabs.


Couple of years ago I was working in Spain, where they have toll-roads which you can pay for via an RFID doodad in your back window.
I fly home to the UK, for a holiday.
I get a phone-call from the British embassy, telling me that the Spanish police want to interview me and they're concerned I'd "fled the country".
I explain that I'll be back in Spain in 10 days and arrangements are made.
When I get back, Spanish cops meet me at the airport, arrest me and the Brit embassy sends a lawyer too.

Turns out there was a fatal accident on a road where I was, apparently, driving that involved a "pick up truck".
The cops just used the data from the toll-road to check every vehicle on the road at that time, noticed I was driving a Toyota HiLux and that I'd left the country 2 days later.
Apparently, that was enough for them to issue an arrest warrant and contact the Brit' embassy.

So, having ruined my vacation, been arrested at the airport and got 2 embassies involved, it took about 2 minutes, back at my place of work, to show them my HiLux, in all it's shiny, undamaged, glory.

Providing governments any information that they don't have a specific, justifable, need for is not something I approve of.


Also, can't wait to see this tracker become "compulsory".
I look forward to making use of my shiny new government-issue smartphone and data-plan.

If you have ANY doubt whether your whereabouts and movements can be checked at any given moment by several bodies ( govnmt., companies, idk ) for whatever reason - as long as you have a mobile phone, or buy travel tickets, or pay with any kind of card, log on to the internet etcetcetcetcetc. - you have not really arrived in the 21st century . Privacy has gone out the door beginning 21st the latest...all of us who participate are more or less opaque glass for anyone who has access to the data .

Your story is interesting, and very likely it is not even absurdly uncommon for things like that to happen to people . But, as your story illustrates...stuff gets cleared - does not undo your inconvenience, but well the question(s) got answered .

To me, there is zero doubt that a tracking app. would/will/can be heaps of helpfull in getting a better grip on the Pandemic . I find it really, really interesting that exactly those things who REALLY work, or HELP with the Pandemic, get a LOT of Flak lately - containment measures ( stay_at_home, physical distancing ), tracking app . Ever wonder how come, or why ?

 

[Ian Skippy]

A civil war on the horizon ? With the break-up of the United States ?



---------------------------------------------------------------------

No.

 

[Synkreto]

No.

You sure ?