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2 Billion Phones Cannot Use Google and Apple Contact-Tracing Tech (arstechnica.com) 170

Posted by BeauHD from the missing-features dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As many as a billion mobile phone owners around the world will be unable to use the smartphone-based system proposed by Apple and Google to track whether they have come into contact with people infected with the coronavirus, industry researchers estimate. The figure includes many poorer and older people -- who are also among the most vulnerable to COVID-19 -- demonstrating a "digital divide" within a system that the two tech firms have designed to reach the largest possible number of people while also protecting individuals' privacy.

The particular kind of Bluetooth "low energy" chips that are used to detect proximity between devices without running down the phone's battery are absent from a quarter of smartphones in active use globally today, according to analysts at Counterpoint Research. A further 1.5 billion people still use basic or "feature" phones that do not run iOS or Android at all. "In all, close to 2 billion [mobile users] will not be benefiting from this initiative globally," said Neil Shah, analyst at Counterpoint. "And most of these users with the incompatible devices hail from the lower-income segment or from the senior segment which actually are more vulnerable to the virus." Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight, estimates that only around two-thirds of adults would have a compatible phone. "And that's the UK, which is an extremely advanced smartphone market," he said. "In India, you could have 60-70 percent of the population that is ruled out immediately."

The report adds: "Counterpoint Research is more optimistic, estimating that 88 percent compatibility in developed markets such as the US, UK, and Japan, while about half of people in India would own the necessary handset."
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2 Billion Phones Cannot Use Google and Apple Contact-Tracing Tech More

2 Billion Phones Cannot Use Google and Apple Contact-Tracing Tech

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  • Give them a phone (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mveloso ( 325617 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:34PM (#59971050)

    You know, the government could just give everyone a BLE-capable phone and that would solve the problem. Right?

    • the government could just give everyone a BLE-capable phone

      This is a worldwide problem, that mostly applies to poorer countries. India can't afford to hand out free phones.

      Also, the "digital divide" argument doesn't apply here because tracking is of no benefit to the person being tracked (they are already infected). Tracking is done for the good of society as a whole, rich and poor alike.

      • tracking is of no benefit to the person being tracked (they are already infected). Tracking is done for the good of society as a whole

        And because it benefits society, this in turn benefits the infected person because it helps reduce the number of other people that get infected and thus compete for hospital beds and ICU beds with the infected person.

      • tracking is of no benefit to the person being tracked (they are already infected).

        What if you are one of the people that may have come into contact with someone infected? The tracking app is for tracking both infected and those in close proximity to them.

        ---

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by quenda ( 644621 )

        India can't afford to hand out free phones.

        What century are you living in? India has a GDP the size of the UK, thermonuclear weapons, and interplanetary space probes.
        Of course they could afford a few billion dollars for mobile phones for the poor. What is it, $30 for a basic phone with BT-LE?

        • "Of course they could afford a few billion dollars for mobile phones for the poor. What is it, $30 for a basic phone with BT-LE?"

          So 1,35 billion people * 30 = 40 billion and a half plus the distribution costs let's say a dozen billions.
          so it will be only 50 billions or so, a 'few' like you said.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not tracking, it's tracing. Important difference.

        And it is of importance to the person being traced because it tells them if they were near someone who has it and thus may themselves potentially be infected. They can then self isolate to protect their family and employer.

      • are rural, where population density will help slow the spread. The goal here is to stop it in the cities as much as possible.

        Even if it only has 50% reach that cuts the amount of contact tracing work in half.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by zieroh ( 307208 )

          I would wager that the poor in India (and lots of other poorer countries) are not, in fact, rural. They are crammed into cities and shanties where social distancing is impossible.

    • Re:Give them a phone (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:56AM (#59971224) Journal
      Except I'd refuse to use it. And so would many others. Because we don't want to be tracked any worse than we already are, not for any reason. Do you really believe that when this is all over (and it will be over at some point, and things will go back to normal) that they'll end the tracking programn? Hell, no, they won't, location data that's personally identifiable, including who they've had contact with? No one who has that will want to give it up. It hast o never happen in the first place or we'll be stuck with it forever. Then people like me who don't want a smartphone and want our privacy, what there is of it anymore, respected, will end up jailed. Is that the world you want to be living in?
      The masks in public and so-called 'social distancing' are more than enough. Chastise the stupid people who can't or won't put up with that, and forget about tracking people. It's a trap.

      • Re:Give them a phone (Score:5, Informative)

        by Dave Cole ( 9740 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:02AM (#59971234)

        After this is all over you could, you know, uninstall the app. Power users only.

        • Re: Give them a phone (Score:5, Insightful)

          by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:28AM (#59971276)

          Are you sure? Android is notorious for being able to hide full running programs and at some point the government will just mandate its presence. People are already suggesting to use the app to identify "approved" people to do business with. Why you don't have immunity to the virus, your life insurance just got a ton more expensive. Wouldn't want to give a job to a potential COVID carrier etc etc.

          This is currently the reality in China and South Korea, if you think nobody will power grab that database, you've forgotten history. Google is the new IBM, working with the Nazis and Commies.

          • Let's be honest, if they really wanted to track you, then they could just use the cell towers.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by vyvepe ( 809573 )
              They are not as precise to detect proximity of two people. But you have a partial point.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by xonen ( 774419 )

                They are not as precise to detect proximity of two people. But you have a partial point.

                Combine the two datasets and you'd have a pretty detailed picture.

                Besides, even if you don't use a location service like the power-hungry GPS, Android phones pretty much already know where you are just based on wifi networks. And that information is available to any app, too.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

                They're not? If a shadowy government agency really wanted to track you, those towers would absolutely be that precise.

                Or they'd just do it from orbit.

              • The point is that if people really cared about privacy, they wouldn't be carrying their cell phone with them everywhere. Most people are more than happy to give up that privacy for convenience.

            • Re: Give them a phone (Score:5, Informative)

              by infolation ( 840436 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @04:52AM (#59971596)
              In the UK this is already being done. [theguardian.com]. The government changed the law and obtained permission from the watchdog to require telecoms companies to hand over location data from phones.

              A great quote from the ICO, which acts as the UK privacy regulator, was "The important thing is that data protection is not a barrier to sharing data".

          • Re: Give them a phone (Score:5, Insightful)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @04:55AM (#59971602) Homepage Journal

            Apple and Google are implementing this as a system service in the OS (necessary for it to be extremely low power) but to do actual contact tracing you need an app that makes use of that API.

            They have not said if it will respect the Bluetooth on/off switch yet.

            The good news is that there is no database, no location data, no personal identification requirement. It creates a random ID per device and from that derives a daily ID which is the result of a one-way hashing function so can't be reversed back into the device ID.

            https://www.apple.com/covid19/... [apple.com]

            • Look, Ami, I know you're not a dumb guy, we've interacted here before, but what you're saying doesn't make sense; if the ostensible purpose of this is 'contact tracing' of infected people then there has to be some mechanism to personally identify people by their phone, which means everyone can be personally tracked everywhere they go, and I just can't believe the Powers That Be would turn down an opportunity to have out-in-the-open tracking of every single person if they can get it legally, I just refuse to

              • Look, Ami, I know you're not a dumb guy, we've interacted here before, but what you're saying doesn't make sense; if the ostensible purpose of this is 'contact tracing' of infected people then there has to be some mechanism to personally identify people by their phone, which means everyone can be personally tracked everywhere they go, and I just can't believe the Powers That Be would turn down an opportunity to have out-in-the-open tracking of every single person if they can get it legally, I just refuse to believe that.

                There's absolutely no need to identify people. You walk around with your phone, I walk around with my phone, at some point we are close together. Your phone has generated an id that is only valid for one day. My phone has done the same. One of us or both upload to a server "phone with id X has been close to phone with id Y". No info who this was, or were the people were.

                Five days later I find out that I'm infected. I tell my app which tells the server. The server marks my ids over the last week as "infec

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                You don't need to identify anyone. You only need to know the daily temporary IDs of their device and you can ask them to provide them willingly at the point you test them or they self declare.

                Identity is irrelevant. The device ID is irrelevant. All you need are 14 randomly generated daily IDs.

          • Google is the new IBM, working with the Nazis and Commies.

            Except in this case the Nazis banned IBM from their country...

        • After this is all over you could, you know, uninstall the app. Power users only.

          Sure, until they start to build it into the phones at the factory.

        • Re:Give them a phone (Score:4, Interesting)

          by JeffOwl ( 2858633 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @07:55AM (#59971906)
          Actually it was stated in a different article that Google was going to add it to the OS. Then, if you did happen to get near someone who was infected, you would be prompted to download the app. They stated that it had to be done this way specifically because people would not install the app. Not only because they were against being tracked, but because they either wouldn't know how or couldn't be bothered to download it. It was stated that it had to be in the OS to achieve critical mass in a reasonable amount of time.
        • I mostly leave it off for battery life, and I have a newer phone. It's still a drain, even if it's a small one.
        • What makes you think the Powers That Be would set it up so you could uninstall it? LOL, no, you'd probably have to have JTAG access and delete it from the filesystem entirely, and then they'd probably have the wireless company managing the phone push-install it again anyway. The only winning move here is to not play.

      • What location data? Identifiable how? (Score:5, Informative)

        by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:38AM (#59971288) Journal

        > Hell, no, they won't, location data that's personally identifiable

        What location data? How is a number you generate randomly personally identifiable?

        Here is roughly how it works.

        Each day your phone generates a large random number.
        When you get within about 10' of another person running the same app, your phones exchange random numbers.

        So the information is that you know you've been near someone who randomly generated the number 84739903592749474 on that day.

        If you get covid-19, when you get the test result you go into the app and press a button to send your last 14 random numbers to the health department. That's all the health department receives - random numbers.

        The health department compiles a list of the random numbers which were generated by the app and the user reported that they are positive. No names, no locations, just random numbers.

        Your copy of the app then checks the list of random numbers associated with a covid infection against the list of random numbers you've received from people around you. If there is a match, you were in proximity to someone who has covid (nobody knows who it was), and you should get tested.

        So anyway, no location info and nothing personally identifiable - just random numbers.

        • "So anyway, no location info and nothing personally identifiable - just random numbers."

          And those random numbers are always the ones from the guy living in the apartment next door and you'll get tested every fucking day.

        • They said the same thing about cookies (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @09:14AM (#59972106)
          What'll probably happen is stores will start collecting the random numbers from phones of customers who enter. Marketers will set up monitoring stations posing as phones to collect random numbers of people passing by certain strategic areas. Then they'll start sharing data with each other to figure out the travel routes of each random number that day. When the same random number shows up in multiple locations, based on the timestamp they can piece together a travel path. They'll keep a record of all these random number paths every day. When certain patterns match, like a certain set of random number always travels the same route at the same time every weekday, they'll tentatively link those numbers together as probably being the same person. One day a marketer will come up with the idea of putting monitoring stations next to checkout lanes. When the number leaves, they'll link it to the last-used credit card at that checkout lane. And bingo - they've linked up your real identity to that day's random number. And based on the correlation to previous days' random number paths, they'll have pieced together a travel history for you.

          Don't get me wrong. I think with the current virus situation, this is a necessary evil. But the scenario you laid out can in fact be abused to back out your identity and location history.

          • That's theoretically possible - though it requires that a huge number of locations pool data and that you go into the same stores every day. It would also be a very noisy signal (hard to process accurately) because while you go to the local grocery store and also the nearby gas station, so does everyone else in your neighborhood. Your "pattern" of going to local stores to get things is hardly unique. Almost everyone who goes to the local liquor store also goes to that same Walmart two blocks away.

            Anyway,

          • Marketers will set up monitoring stations posing as phones to collect random numbers of people passing by certain strategic areas. Then they'll start sharing data with each other to figure out the travel routes of each random number that day.

            Then Apple and Google take the first ten marketers to court for computer hacking, laws get changed so that it is legal to remove their genitals, and soon after this stops.

        • Each day your phone generates a large random number. When you get within about 10' of another person running the same app, your phones exchange random numbers. So the information is that you know you've been near someone who randomly generated the number 84739903592749474 on that day.

          Almost.

          Every day your phone generates a large random number. Every 10 minutes, your phone hashes that large random number with an incrementing counter to generate a new pseudorandom number. When you get within range of another person running the app, your phones exchange pseudorandom numbers. So the information you know is that you've been near someone who pseudorandomly generated the number 1297562190642096 in that 10-minute period.

          This approach allows the beaconed ID to change frequently (and in lo

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Have you looked at the proposal for how this will work?

        https://covid19-static.cdn-app... [cdn-apple.com]
        https://www.apple.com/covid19/... [apple.com]

        Basically the phones exchange random looking IDs that change every day. If someone is infected they can alert a health authority who can then mark the last 2 weeks of their IDs (stored only on their phone until the user agrees to share them) as infected and every other device can check their list of seen devices against it. It's a bit more complicated than that but basically it doesn't us

      • Except I'd refuse to use it. And so would many others. Because we don't want to be tracked any worse than we already are, not for any reason. Do you really believe that when this is all over (and it will be over at some point, and things will go back to normal) that they'll end the tracking programn? Hell, no,

        Google and Apple are developing an API. They _both_ control what's in that API, so between them they can and will make sure that their API is safe. No tracking. No knowledge where you have been. All that can ever be found is that one phone has been close to another phone whose user pressed the "I have a virus" button.

        No some countries don't like this API. France for example, and possibly the UK. They want _their_ software to run. I assume Apple will say "no" to them and right now Apple has a billion reas

      • You won't be allowed into stores, office buildings, theaters or anywhere else with large groups of people without it. Companies that do not check for it will see their liability insurance rates skyrocket. The free market will literally demand it. The government, eager for a safe way to reopen the economy will uphold the companies right to require it.

        You personally might be able to order all your food for delivery, work from home and only leave your house to go to other's homes and hang out a bit. But mo
      • This--I was wondering if you can still get phones on this list? How much?

    • Get a Huawei phone. Don't get tracked by Google or Apple, don't get blacklisted by COVID :)

    • using ble for it was always a stupid idea. really it was. anyone who has done any bluetooth development will know this.

      I thought the whole thing worked with logging gps? but no, tracking ble? that's monumentally random with the phones api's with drivebys, passing, crowds(especially) ..

    • That would solve the problem too. Put it on your keychain with one of those little removable key rings for easy charging.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      It doesn't even have to be a phone. You could build BLE bricks the size of a USB stick and just hand them out for people to keep in their pocket. Would probably cost about $5 each.

  • Solution: distribute BT LE beacon 'tokens' to wear (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Monday April 20, 2020 @11:37PM (#59971058)
    Even though they wouldn't be able to transmit info themselves, the user could just return the token if found to be infected, and the authorities can pull the current information out of the token and input it in the system just like a smartphone would do itself (from what I understand the descriptions of how the whole tracing process works).
  • I wonder how many have google play store access or are generic devices.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      It's not only Google Play Services vs. AOSP. It's also whether the underlying OS is new enough. Last I read, the anonymous contact tracing capability will be available as part of Google Play Services for Android 6 "Marshmallow" through Android 10.[1] This means my own Android phone (a Coolpad Catalyst) won't get it, as it's stuck at [a largely uncustomized version of] Android 5.1 "Lollipop".

      [1] "Android phones will get the COVID-19 tracking updates via Google Play" by Dieter Bohn [theverge.com]

      • Well, of course it won't work on Android versions older than a certain version. Older versions are either:
        • Missing a certain functionality (most likely bluetooth LE support) that prevents this solution from working
        • Used by so few people that Google decided it's not worth it to add support for this solution

  • Its Okay if you are in that group (Score:5, Informative)

    by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:24AM (#59971136)

    "In all, close to 2 billion [mobile users] will not be benefiting from this initiative globally," said Neil Shahe

    (1) Just because a measure is not a perfect complete solution does Not mean you do not pursue it.

    (2) Its estimated that contact tracing can be effective if only 60% of people fully participate.

    (3) Everyone benefits from the results of slowing the spread in the community; so even if you do not have a Smartphone... you still benefit from those that do using such apps.

  • Even though my phone is compatible (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dark.nebulae ( 3950923 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:27AM (#59971144)

    I would never give them yet another way to track me. I already disable location services for most apps. Those that need it only get "while using the app" access.

    • Re:Even though my phone is compatible (Score:5, Informative)

      by leehwtsohg ( 618675 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @12:46AM (#59971188)

      This does not rely on location service, and supposedly doesn't tell anyone where you where or who you met. And maybe if it is opensource we can trust it to do what it says?

      • No, but anti-government, errr location, but the insurance company might, ... ahhh what is it with you people. Can't you leave us conspiracy nutjobs alone. .... Are you tracking us!

      • "This does not rely on location service, and supposedly doesn't tell anyone where you where or who you met."

        Exactly! It will tell you every day that you were in close proximity with your sick neighbor next door, or living under or above you.

      • This ... supposedly doesn't tell anyone where you where or who you met.

        • 1. How it's described to work and how it actually works can easily be two very different things.
        • 2. How it works today can easily be different from how it works tomorrow.

        As far as the "just exchanging large random numbers" narrative, well, they're also exchanging bluetooth hardware addresses.

        This does not rely on location service.

        Even if that was true, anyone who did have their location service on and comes into contact with you has now pegged your location. Past that, any inferences that can be made about someone contribute to a probabilistic

    • Re:Even though my phone is compatible (Score:5, Informative)

      by swillden ( 191260 ) <shawn-ds@willden.org> on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:19AM (#59971262) Journal

      I would never give them yet another way to track me. I already disable location services for most apps. Those that need it only get "while using the app" access.

      You should read the contact tracing proposal. It's not particularly long or complicated. It doesn't give Google or Apple any way to track you. It kind of sort of gives the health services a way to track you... but only if you test positive for COVID-19, and only if you decide to hand over your data. And "kind of sort of" because the data you provide includes no location information at all, and no way for the health services to determine who you've been in contact with... though it does provide the people you were in contact with a chance to find out that they were in contact with an infected person, though not where or when. If they weren't around many people in the last two weeks, they might be able to figure it out, though.

      Also, if a theoretical attacker were to scatter BLE receivers all over in places frequented by very few people along with video cameras or some other way to get an ID of people who went there, and you went to one of those places, and you then testes positive and uploaded your diagnosis keys, then the attacker might be able to determine that you were the infected one. Maybe. But it wouldn't help them track you; whatever tracking they'd get would be from the video logs, not from the contact tracing data.

      • Re: Even though my phone is compatible (Score:5, Insightful)

        by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:40AM (#59971290)

        All you need is a correlation with another data source and I instantly know who you are. Let's say you meet your friend and you're super privacy oriented but your friend has an Android. Your friend gets the notice, all I have to cross reference is your friends' location. I now have your identifier which I can store and track over many existing BLE beacons and wifi stations.

        It doesn't matter that your identifier is encrypted, as long as the identifier is unique it is by definition your identity.

        McDonalds can identify you already if you walk into a mall with one of those ad kiosks based on relationship information only and your wifi and BT identifiers. You're multiplying this by a million or so more people that have this app mandated, it's an advertisers paradise.

        • Re: Even though my phone is compatible (Score:5, Informative)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @05:02AM (#59971612) Homepage Journal

          Nope. The ID that is used for contact tracing by your device changes daily and is the result of a one-way hash. There is no way to trace it back to your device short of stealing your device and breaking in to the secure element where it is stored to retrieve it.

          McDonalds can't identify you by WiFi or Bluetooth unless you have an exceptionally shitty phone. Android and iOS have both been randomly changing the MAC addresses for years now, every 15 minutes.

        • All you need is a correlation with another data source and I instantly know who you are. Let's say you meet your friend and you're super privacy oriented but your friend has an Android. Your friend gets the notice, all I have to cross reference is your friends' location. I now have your identifier which I can store and track over many existing BLE beacons and wifi stations.

          Others have pointed out why your idea doesn't work. I just want to point out that it seems odd that you expect that it would be so trivially broken. Is this because you think the security engineers and cryptographers at Google and Apple are incompetent? Or because you think they're trying to pull a fast one?

          • Others have pointed out why your idea doesn't work. I just want to point out that it seems odd that you expect that it would be so trivially broken. Is this because you think the security engineers and cryptographers at Google and Apple are incompetent? Or because you think they're trying to pull a fast one?

            Lots of people here on Slashdot suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. If they cannot think immediately of the solution of a problem then it is impossible to solve. I'm a bit more progressed on the curve. If I cannot think immediately of the solution of a problem, then I know first that I need to think harder. Not 5 seconds, but 10 minutes. Then I know there are people who get paid to think about it not for 10 minutes, but for some weeks. And I know there are people who are smarter than me.

            In this case,

        • All you need is a correlation with another data source and I instantly know who you are.

          No. It's not that easy. You need a large collection of data from other sources to narrow down who you may be. Doing this kind of analysis to find out who you *are* is actually incredibly complicated.

          I now have your identifier which I can store and track over many existing BLE beacons and wifi stations.

          Hey by the way my identifier is "thegarbz". I use it all over the internet. Please tell me: my name, location, IPaddress. Hell I'll make it easy for you and give you a 1 in 195 chance of guessing: Just tell me what country I'm even in. Even with heavy resources you could pin me at maybe 4 or 5 countries and woul

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by idji ( 984038 )
        i think it provides "when" down to 10 minutes, so you can reconstruct where you were based on your memory or maybe your app locally stores location if you want that.

        • i think it provides "when" down to 10 minutes, so you can reconstruct where you were based on your memory or maybe your app locally stores location if you want that.

          Theoretically, yes, but I think you'd have to both root your device and perhaps modify the system software to get access to that level of detail. I'm pretty sure timestamps aren't even stored with the BLE beacon values received. Depending on how they're stored internally you might be able to deduce something... for example if they're written to a log file sequentially, but it wouldn't be easy because the value of interest would be mixed in with others. But it's far more likely they'll be stored in some s

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by chihowa ( 366380 )

        The proposal for this tracing system looks innocuous and well designed, but it's going to be a tough sell for many people to accept a system like this based on the trust that this is how it will actually work in reality. The tech industry, and Google in particular, have already squandered too much of the public's trust in them by being such mendacious creeps.

        • The proposal for this tracing system looks innocuous and well designed, but it's going to be a tough sell for many people to accept a system like this based on the trust that this is how it will actually work in reality.

          In the case of Android it will be open source.

  • My Nokia 3310 was ahead of its time (Score:3)

    by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @01:03AM (#59971238)

    advanced anti-tracking capabilities by just omitting BT-LE.

  • Quality journalism /s (Score:3)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @02:17AM (#59971324) Homepage

    As many as a billion mobile phone owners around the world will be unable to use

    As Voltaire said, "perfect is the enemy of good." This appears to be a solution that will cover the vast majority of smartphones, while preserving privacy. The fact that a minority of phones cannot use it, is not a reason to reject it.

    Also, you have to love the quality journalism. The title refers to "2 billion phones", the article says "a billion mobile phone owners" cannot use this tech, and then goes on to discuss "specific wireless chips and software that are missing from hundreds of millions of smartphones." The numbers keep going down. Actually, it turns out that they get to the "2 billion" figure by including the 1.5 billion people who don't own a smartphone.

    Quality journalism.

    • Also, you have to love the quality journalism. The title refers to "2 billion phones", the article says "a billion mobile phone owners" cannot use this tech, and then goes on to discuss "specific wireless chips and software that are missing from hundreds of millions of smartphones."

      Three of these two billion phones are somewhere at the bottom of a drawer in my study. Should have thrown them away ages ago.

  • What could go wrong? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Tuesday April 21, 2020 @03:17AM (#59971400)

    So a system that doesn't exist, proposed by two companies that profit by ads, will require EVERYONE to ALWAYS CARRY a phone that has particular features (and you know it won't be allowed to be rooted/jailbroken) so that we can track a virus.

    Then it will be FDA certified... and if you've rooted/jailbroken your phone or didn't do the latest updates, you're a "health risk" and maybe it's a citation and maybe it's an arrest -- I don't know -- I'm not a maximalist. At the end of the day it will be used to PUNISH people who don't comply. It won't fix the LACK OF TESTING and it won't fix the LACK OF EPP and it won't fix the LACK OF VACCINES/CURES.

    All it will do is stigmatize.

    Way to go GooApp.

    E

  • Hope mine can't , would save me the trouble of circumventing it

  • ...the answer is to just have governments replace all those billions of phones with new models costing around $800 each." /Just wanted to see how stupid that looked in writing before someone suggested it seriously.

  • not relevant! Americans will not want to be tracked. Because they know the government will misuse this!
    Because the government has proven they can not be trusted based on their past actions.

    Just my 2 cents ;)
  • I'm one of those with a feature phone. I see no reason to carry a full fledged computer with me everywhere. This whole tracking BS sounds fishy to me. Just another excuse for tech to say that they need to monitor us. I'm tired of these tracking attempts. Up yours government/silicone valley/Zuckajerk/M$!
  • Lots of people have phones stuck in a drawer that they couldn't be bothered to put on eBay or just give away when they bought a new one.
  • No way I'd participate.

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