Thread: Corona Virus

Originally Posted by Pickles2

Well judging by the initial response, it appears that plenty of people disagree with you.
Why do I say that?...In the first five hours of the App being available 1.1M+ Aussies have "signed up", the Govt Health Minister is thrilled as The Govt had thought that it would take a week to get to this stage.
Pickles.

9.00PM Monday night, still going well, and so it should be,...2M signed up.
Pickles

Originally Posted by Tombie

For someone with such a web presence, and who leaves his garage unlocked , you seem overly concerned by your phone having your location. Shame that your telco can and does already track this, as well as the usual other software embedded on your device.

The modern paranoia of this planet and it’s inhabitants

What has my garage have to do with the discussion.

As you are such a 'know all' well you use it -I am not going to at this stage.

*disclaimer* : I'm playing devils advocate here.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I guess we happily give our locations to BOM, Facebook and Google

Maybe you do. I don't.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I like what I'm hearing, but would like everything promised re privacy to be confirmed. That requires the coding to be released, which is 2 weeks away, and legislation to be passed by parliament about the same time.

So they "release" the code. How do you know the binary you get from the "app stores" is built from the same code?

I actually think the implementation sounds adequate, and it sounds like a good idea, but even if you actually know enough to examine the code, do you know what you are running on your device (hint, the answer is a resounding no).

I won't be putting it on my device. Not because I don't believe it's a good idea, but with what I have going on, I'm already part of a "contact tracing" network and it's going to have zero value to me and people I come into contact with (and the battery hit is actually an issue).

So they release the code to the geek nation. One of their number (or many) delve into the code to find a way to utilise the BT connection to their advantage to unlock your phone, steal sensitive information, or install hidden applicaitons. Yes, conspiracy theory. Possible, absolutely.

This app will (on iPhone) require constant refreshing because iOS does not allow extended BT activity in order to prevent TRACKING. Just because the grubberment say they will not be tracking you doesn't mean other unscrupulous individuals will not take advantage of the situation. More conspiracy theory? If you like.

That's a no from me.
And you will most likely want to carry a charge cable and/or a power pack because with the constant pinging for phones within range will eat batteries.

Originally Posted by Tombie

Are you following the international convention?
It asked for number and places +61 prefix which should mean dropping the “0” from your number. That didn’t work for me though. Just my normal full number.

Tried both ways, neither worked.

Can someone who is suspicious of the app explain to me exactly how their life will be affected by the data this app collects?

Something more specific than "I don't want the government tracking me" would be helpful.

I find it funny that some are carrying on about privacy and someone knowing where you are all the time, privacy has been gone for years and if you carry a phone, your location is known to someone or something - Turing settings off does nothing as the cell tower has to know where your phone is to connect you, also almost all of us would run Google maps to see what the traffic is like - where do you think that data comes from?

Privacy has been a ruse for ages now.

Originally Posted by BradC

So they "release" the code. How do you know the binary you get from the "app stores" is built from the same code?

A checksum (MD5 hash or similar) can confirm the app that's downloaded has the same binary code as the binary code the source compiles to. It's like a fingerprint - the fingerprint of the app in the store can be compared to the fingerprint of the app derived from the released source code.

It's routinely done when downloading some files. After a file download the MD5 checksum can be calculated and can be compared to the publicly available checksum to ensure what is downloaded is actually what is purported to be download.