Senators Introduce COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Privacy Bill (cnet.com) 38
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: A group of U.S. senators on Monday introduced a bill to regulate contact-tracing apps, aiming to protect user privacy as technology is used to track the spread of the novel coronavirus. The proposal is called the Exposure Notification Privacy Act and seeks to ensure that people couldn't be forced to use the technology. It also would make sure that the data isn't used for advertising or commercial purposes and that people can delete their data. The bill seeks to require that notification systems only rely on "an authorized diagnosis" that came from medical organization.
"Public health needs to be in charge of any notification system so we protect people's privacy and help them know when there is a warning that they might have been exposed to COVID-19," Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington and one of the bill's sponsors, said in a comment provided to CNET. Cantwell's co-sponsor on the bill is Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, also has given her support. "We need to regulate apps that provide COVID-19 exposure notification to protect a user's privacy, prevent data misuse and preserve our civil rights -- and this bill offers a roadmap for doing all three," Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Sara Collins said in a statement. "The bill marks a valuable first step in the long road ahead to protecting Americans' data."
"Public health needs to be in charge of any notification system so we protect people's privacy and help them know when there is a warning that they might have been exposed to COVID-19," Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington and one of the bill's sponsors, said in a comment provided to CNET. Cantwell's co-sponsor on the bill is Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, also has given her support. "We need to regulate apps that provide COVID-19 exposure notification to protect a user's privacy, prevent data misuse and preserve our civil rights -- and this bill offers a roadmap for doing all three," Public Knowledge Policy Counsel Sara Collins said in a statement. "The bill marks a valuable first step in the long road ahead to protecting Americans' data."
"people can delete their data" (Score:4, Informative)
Not an Issue in Japan (Score:1)
In Japan, this matter is not an issue. The residents do not use contact-tracing apps but, rather, use in-person interviews. The old-fashioned method has worked well.
Japan's "secret weapon" against the coronavirus is Japanese culture.
A high-quality culture creates a successful nation. A low-quality culture destroys a nation.
The strict immigration laws in Japan have maintained a single dominant culture that has high quality. Japanese culture has greatly helped to slow the spread of the coronavirus within
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In the case of GDPR it does so hopefully they modelled it after that.
Not good enough (Score:1, Insightful)
There are only three ways out of this COVID-19 mess: 1) Vaccine 2) Contact Tracing. Contact tracing should be mandatory for everyone, either by a mobile phone or some other device. The only other way out is massive deaths.
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Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: Not good enough (Score:4, Interesting)
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Chicken pox
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A disease like chicken pox proves his point. Until the chicken pox vaccine came along, we just sorta had to live with chicken pox. It was never going to be eradicated and herd immunity did not protect vulnerable populations like young children from it.
Re: Not good enough (Score:2)
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If you define "herd immunity" as a level that can only be achieved with a vaccine, then there's no need to ask whether it can be achieved without a vaccine.
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Herd immunity is when enough of the herd is immune that the spread rate drops below 1 and never recovers, which will mean that eventually the disease will die out completely (in that population, which if it's worldwide means it'll go extinct). This can happen naturally, and in fact most specific diseases that have existed historically have also died off, or else we'd be a heck of a lot sicker. Even among the seasonal diseases, we're dealing with heavily-evolved descendant forms of earlier disease strains.
Th
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There may never be a vaccine. We can hope there is, but there are no guarantees.
With over 75 vaccines in development, the probability of that happening: less than 1%.
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With over 75 vaccines in development, the probability of [there never being a vaccine]: less than 1%.
We still don't have a vaccine for HIV almost 40 years after it became a known disease. Malaria as well. There is a significant chance we won't have a vaccine for a long time, perhaps decades. It is certainly far more likely we do get a vaccine in the next few years, perhaps within the next year, but it isn't guaranteed. And definitely not a 99% certainty.
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We still don't have a vaccine for HIV almost 40 years after it became a known disease.
HIV is something special (ie the body can't fight it off by itself, so normal vaccine techniques don't work). Malaria isn't a virus . All signs are that a vaccine will work for coronavirus (for example, the body has demonstrated its ability to generate antibodies that fight COVID-19. A vaccine will help the body do that in advance.)
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We still don't have a vaccine for HIV almost 40 years after it became a known disease. Malaria as well.
Malaria is a parasite (little bugs) so it's not surprising we can't create antibodies for that.
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With over 75 vaccines in development, the probability of that happening: less than 1%.
Only 75? I'd have expected a lot more than that with the amount of funding being thrown around.
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Re: shaking my haid.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Too little too late (Score:5, Insightful)
Just imagine if the US had in place a comprehensive privacy, personally identifiable information and data rights laws which covers all scenarios, rather than having to waste time introducing bills for specific circumstances... That would be something, wouldn't it?
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Businesses around the world are caring about the GDPR - you can see this by how a lot of them are changing their practices and approaches to data access and retention.
So yeah, make a law which has teeth and businesses will care - absolutely no need to throw money at lawyers to bring class action suit after class action suit (and the subsequent whining and bitching here on Slashdot when the settlement gives class members a sticker book, free credit check reports and a buck twenty in compensation, while the l
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Just like we have a Do Not Call list and no one ever gets robocalls?
Yeah. Something.
The proper way... (Score:1)
Sounds like government wants a monopoly (Score:3)
Public health needs to be in charge of any notification system so we protect people's privacy and help them know when there is a warning that they might have been exposed to COVID-19
Sounds like government wants a monopoly
No government apps (Score:4, Interesting)
I don’t think I would be willing to use a government-endorsed contact-tracing app after the way the government behaved during the lockdown.
And you'd be dumb to use any of these apps without a guarantee the data could never be used to hold you legally liable for spreading Covid.
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It's the government... what do you have to hide?
Just stop resisting and we will stop beating you... it's very simple!
It is amazing the people that turn to the government the most are the ones most abused by it... C'est La Vie
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I don’t think I would be willing to use a government-endorsed contact-tracing app after the way the government behaved during the lockdown.
And you'd be dumb to use any of these apps without a guarantee the data could never be used to hold you legally liable for spreading Covid.
Assuming the app uses the Google/Apple APIs, there's no way the data could be used against you at all unless you voluntarily shared it.
This is how it works:
1. Your phone generates a new random diagnostic key every day. Every 10 minutes it uses this diagnostic key to compute a broadcast value, which it beacons every few seconds for the next 10 minutes via Bluetooth (your Bluetooth MAC address changes in lockstep with the broadcast value, so your MAC can't be used to tie broadcast values together).
2. Yo
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If you're concerned about the data being used to hold you legally liable for spreading COVID-19, simply refuse to provide your diagnostic keys.
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that's how subpoenas work. I'd get held in contempt and forced to pay the other guy's attorney fees or worse.
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If you're concerned about the data being used to hold you legally liable for spreading COVID-19, simply refuse to provide your diagnostic keys.
I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that's how subpoenas work. I'd get held in contempt and forced to pay the other guy's attorney fees or worse.
Diagnostic keys are automatically deleted after 14 days, so he'd better get that subpoena out fast.
don't trust Trump's Senate (Score:2, Troll)
I thought that the industry (Apple & Google) had already agreed upon a suitable tracing system.
Unfortunately, anything that Trump's Senate agrees to is assuredly not in the public interest.
A Contact tracing App (Score:2)
Is only going to work when you have your cellphone with you at all times. and on at all times..
The policy at where I work is that is that you aren't allowed to have your cellphone on you while you are working, it must be left in your locker, bag, purse or vehicle.
Contact tracing does not work. (Score:2)
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