Free Republic

Sounds like contact tracing is right around the corner and our Big Brother friends, Google and Apple, are planning help facilitate tracking our activities via our smartphones. Just curious if anyone has considered dumping the smartphone for a simple flip phone. I presume that my position can still be traced via the triangulation cell tower network but that resolution is limited. However since the simple phones don't have a GPS chip and "smart" capabilities, detailed positioning and track is not as easily available to Big Brother.

People who have the coronavirus but don’t display symptoms aren’t driving the spread of the pandemic, World Health Organization officials said Monday.“From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing in Geneva, CNBC reported.“It’s very rare.”Health officials warned early on that asymptomatic carriers could be fueling the spread by stealth — but Van Kerkhove said that while asymptomatic spread can occur, it is not the main way the virus...

As if worrying about the Democrats using cheat-by-mail to steal the 2020 election was not enough, the Strategic Culture Foundation has a new report out about how “contact tracing” will be used to suppress the vote in predominantly red districts this November. Nancy Pelosi already successfully slipped cash for contact tracing efforts into the CARES Act in March, right under everyone’s noses. What no one realized at the time was that this is another taxpayer-funded effort to solely benefit the Democrat Party on election. Blue states are already enthusiastically hiring “contract tracers” to get ready for this. In an earlier...

For the second time in about a month, Washington state leaders have completely changed how they track and report key metrics in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Two weeks ago, as we noted, the previous dashboard with five dials proved to be largely useless, inaccurate, and irrelevant. Soon afterward, state officials stopped updating the dials and now they have abandoned them entirely. The new dashboard the governor has put up is, potentially, an improvement. For example, where his old dashboard with the dials claimed daily testing for COVID-19 was improving, saying the amount of testing was “very roughly steady,” his new...

If you don't have time to read this - know that laws are already on the books, cell phone are being updated to facilitate tracing apps, plans and facilities are in place to (repeatedly) remove healhty children or adults from homes if they were "exposed". All actions needed are being moved into place to quarantine healthy and sick people and track their movements based on test results controlled by others. Law enforcement databases will flag homes with people being traced (healthy or not). It's not just about Covid-19. If you're going to skip reading the description and video transcript, please...

contact tracing: They will find you

Arizona sued Google this week, alleging the big tech company engaged in deceptive and unfair business practices to obtain users’ location data for advertising purposes in order to gain a profit. The 50-page complaint alleges Google tracks the location of its users even if the consumer had disabled the tracker. After a roughly two-year probe, Arizona says Google also makes it confusing and increasingly difficult for a consumer to opt-out of the tracking and information collection. “While Google users are led to believe they can opt-out of location tracking, the company exploits other avenues to invade personal privacy,” Arizona Attorney...

They will track you and tell you what you can and cannot do. You will be a puppet of the state. You must do what they say for the greater good. Freedom will be lost forever.

Chicago officials will allocate $56 million in COVID-19 relief funding to expand contact tracing throughout the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced in a coronavirus briefing Tuesday. The $56 million Request for Proposals seeks organizations to lead a coordination of contact tracing efforts across the city. The RFP requires a lead agency to allocate 85% of contact tracing funding to at least 30 neighborhood-based organizations located within, or serving residents of, communities in economic hardship in Chicago. According to Lightfoot, the neighborhood-based organizations are responsible for recruiting, hiring and supporting a workforce of 600 contact tracers, supervisors, and referral coordinators to...

Oh, joy! “Contact tracing” is ramping up. Under the guise of concern for public health, contact tracing allows the left to continue their totalitarian advance, as the federal government leaves it up to states to develop these intrusive measures Contact tracing + tech overlords = We are tracking your every move, we know where you are, and we will deliver tyranny to your front door. SNIP Whitmer noted that it’s critical that people answer their phone for this to work and so you can be informed that you’ve had contact with someone who’s had contact with someone who’s had contact...

I just spent a considerable amount of time reviewing everything I could find from our immensely powerful CDC on this subject, starting here at their index. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/open-america/contact-tracing/index.html Within that link you will find:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/principles-contact-tracing.html Within that are many pdf documents with detail. The “principles-contact-tracing-booklet.pdf” is a pretty clear outline. The download link to that pdf is at the bottom of that page. Apple and Google (Android) have already introduced apps to support this massive tracking effort in support of the CDC. Apple in iOS 13.5 introduced an exposure notification API, which lets apps from public health authorities and governments worldwide help...

Apple in iOS 13.5 is introducing an exposure notification API designed to allow apps created by public health authorities worldwide to notify people who come into contact with someone who has COVID-19 about their exposure to the virus. Apple's Exposure Notification feature is privacy focused and shares no personally identifiable information or location data with the public health authorities creating the apps, but some users may want to opt out of the feature, which is enabled by default when upgrading to iOS 13.5. Apple in the iOS 13.5 update added a toggle to disable COVID-19 Exposure Notifications for those who...

"The iOS 13.5 update also launches Apple's framework for contact tracing apps. No, the apps aren't here yet, but when governments and public health authorities do launch them, you'll be notified – anonymously – when you come into contact with someone who tests positive for Covid-19. Apple's API is the first step to rolling out these apps" 

As the U.S. aims to reduce the spread of COVID-19, tens of thousands of Americans have applied for contact tracer roles to help track cases and exposure, according to The New York Times. Five things to know about these workers: 1. At least 11,142 contact tracers are working now in the U.S., according to a survey conducted in late April by NPR. The number may be higher since figures for all states in the late April survey have not been updated. 2. Estimates of how many contact tracers are needed nationwide range from 100,000 to 300,000, according to NPR and...

(TNS) — From France to Australia to North Dakota, government apps designed to help authorities track and slow the spread of COVID-19 are struggling to accomplish their goals because of restrictions on data collection built into smartphones by Apple Inc. and Google. That’s leaving public health officials with few options but to use a system designed by Apple and Google themselves. The tech companies say their tools preserve privacy and work seamlessly on devices used by some 3 billion people. Here’s the rub: Those same privacy features lock authorities out of collecting information they can use to track the broader...

Here's another amazing "fact check" brought to you by AP & Facebook: CLAIM: Individuals in Washington state who refuse to cooperate with contact tracers, or those who refuse testing, will not be allowed to leave their homes for necessities. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The Department of Health in Washington state confirmed to the AP that contact tracing participation is voluntary. - - - - - - - - - - - - My assessment of AP's assessment: Here is a link to an article with the news conference video: https://lynnwoodtimes.com/2020/05/12/governor-inslee-lays-out-statewide-contact-tracing-plan-for-covid-19/ In it, a reporter asks: “When it comes to contact tracing,...

In a best-case scenario, just half of Americans would participate in a voluntary coronavirus "contact tracing" program tracked with cell phones, according to the latest installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index. ... The findings underscore deep resistance to turning over sensitive health information, and mistrust about how it could be used. The only way to get even half of Americans to participate would be for public health officials to run the program, not the White House or tech or phone companies. What they're saying: "The whole concept of American democracy is about local control and civil liberties, individual liberties," said...

At his May 12 press conference, Washington State Governor Jay Inslee laid out the plans for the statewide contact tracing initiative. “[The initiative] is robust, it is vigorous and it is comprehensive, and it needs to be all three to be successful,” Inslee said. “If we do not succeed in this second stage of our efforts, this virus could come bright back and bite us.” As LynnwoodTimes.com’s Luke Putvin notes, the information Inslee provided was labeled as “Contact Tracing: Box in The Virus.” The steps were listed as follows: Contact tracing involves interviewing people with positive COVID-19 tests to...

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced a new contact tracing program for the state in a medium post, because that’s the best way to alert your population to a major new expansion of government power: . . . For those individuals that refuse to cooperate with contact tracers and/or refuse testing, will not be allowed to leave their homes to purchase basic necessities such as groceries and/or prescriptions.

South Korea is in a race to contain a new coronavirus outbreak in a Seoul party district, prompting a return of social distancing just as the country was easing restrictions. Tracing who was there, however, runs up against the feelings of a gay community that prefers anonymity. At least 79 cases have been linked to nightclubs and bars that the cluster’s suspected “patient zero” visited the previous weekend, according to South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 29-year-old patient went barhopping across Seoul’s trendy Itaewon neighborhood days before receiving a covid-19 diagnosis Wednesday. His case was the first...