Google Promised its Contact Tracing App was Completely Private--But It Wasn’t

DannyB writes:

I'm sure you will be as shocked as I was to learn of the following . . .

Google Promised Its Contact Tracing App Was Completely Private-But It Wasn't:

When Google and Apple introduced their COVID-19 contact tracing framework in April 2020, the companies aimed to reassure people worried about sharing private health information with major corporations.

Google and Apple provided assurances that the data generated through the apps-people's movements, who they might have come in contact with, and whether they reported testing positive for COVID-19-would be anonymized and would never be shared with anyone other than public health agencies.

[...] California governor Gavin Newsom endorsed his state's version of the app, calling it "100% private & secure" in a tweet last December.

But The Markup has learned that not only does the Android version of the contact tracing tool contain a privacy flaw, but when researchers from the privacy analysis firm AppCensus alerted Google to the problem back in February of this year, Google failed to change it. AppCensus was testing the system as part of a contract with the Department of Homeland Security. The company found no similar issues with the iPhone version of the framework.

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