Chris’ note: Our goal at Daily Cut AM… Market Mission Control is to help you and your family navigate the coronavirus pandemic.
Our focus has been on your health and your wealth. But there’s another threat… to your civil liberties. Governments and corporations are using the pandemic to ramp up mass surveillance.
Already, local, state, and federal officials are tracking your location via your smartphone. And as our tech expert, Jeff Brown, reveals in today’s insight, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Soon, all new smartphones will have “contact-tracing” software built in. They’ll not only track where you are… but also, who you encounter as you go about your daily life…
Google and Apple just partnered up on COVID-19 “contact-tracing”…
As if the above information wasn’t disturbing enough, I have even more worrying news to share.
As I showed readers of my free daily tech investing newsletter, The Bleeding Edge, Google recently published its “Community Mobility Reports.”
These reports gather GPS (satellite-based) location data from smartphones. The aim is to track how people have been moving around at country, state, and even county levels.
Thanks to the constant stream of personal data they harvest from our smartphones, Google and other Silicon Valley companies already know where we work, live, shop, and entertain ourselves.
They even know what parks we go to.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. With contact-tracing technology in place, they’ll also know who we encounter as we go about our daily lives.
This trove of data is enabling something called “contact-tracing.”
It’s designed to alert you if you have come into contact with a person who has COVID-19.
Apple and Google just announced they are adding an app that uses this technology to iPhones and phones that run Android (Google’s mobile operating system).
And that means pretty much every phone on the market right now. Together, Apple and Google make the operating systems for more than 99% of smartphones.
The two companies will roll out their contact-tracing app as early as next month.
I, for one, will not be downloading it.
You see, through this app, our phones will automatically share information with other phones, using Bluetooth.
That’s right – our phones will connect us to other people’s phones. It will happen automatically. Health authorities such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) will manage this communication system.
And it gets much worse.
Later this year, Google and Apple plan to add this contact-tracing technology directly to their operating systems.
We’ll get a software update on our phones that will automatically install this functionality – no app necessary.
It will be built right into the operating system. You won’t be able to delete it.
Officially, this is an opt-in system.
But as you know, this type of thing is usually buried within a giant legal agreement that you must consent to if you want to use the product or service.
When it gets built into the operating system, you won’t have much choice in the matter. If you consent to using the operating system, you consent to contact-tracing.
Looking at the big picture, more than one-third of the world’s population uses an iPhone or Android smartphone. That means Apple and Google will be contact-tracing more than 3 billion people around the globe.
Let’s imagine a worst-case scenario. Let’s say this technology tags you as coming into close contact with somebody infected with COVID-19.
Then, perhaps on your way to the grocery store, a police cruiser intercepts you. Cops “contain” you by force and quarantine you – for the sake of society.
That may be technically legal under emergency pandemic powers. But to me, it sounds an awful lot like detention without due process.
I know the world is eager to stop the spread of COVID-19. So am I. But for those of us who care about our rights and privacy, this is a frightening development.
I’ll repeat here what I told my Bleeding Edge readers.
The ethical questions we face over new technologies are unprecedented. There is no historical example of what we are going to face.
I don’t tell you all this to worry you. As a technologist, I believe tech has always been a force for good. And I believe technology will also solve some of society’s biggest problems in the years ahead.
But make no mistake… we’re at an inflection point. Over the next two decades, society will either become one of abundance for all… or it will descend into chaos.
Time will tell which wins out.
Chris here – We’re publishing Daily Cut AM… Market Mission Control Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for as long as this crisis lasts.
As part of it, we’re putting together a “community center” for you and your fellow readers.
This is where you can share your updates and personal stories about how you’re getting through this crisis. It’s also where you can put your most pressing questions to our analysts.
I’ll get to as many of your emails as I can.
Then I’ll publish answers from Jeff… as well as Bill Bonner, Doug Casey, Teeka Tiwari, Jason Bodner, Dan Denning, Nick Giambruno, Tom Dyson, and Dave Forest in these pages.
We’re also interested in updates on quarantines in your area… stories from frontline medical staff… and your views on the response by the authorities to the crisis.
So send your questions and stories my way. You can reach me and the rest of the team at [email protected].
Today, we’ll keep the focus on the threat of “always-on” digital surveillance.
One Daily Cut reader is a longtime telecoms professional. And as he reveals below, we gave up our privacy a long time ago…
I began working in the cellphone and communications industry in 1985. That was when an in-car cellphone was as big as a house phone. And it would blow the horn when you received a call. I now have worked 35 years in the industry.
In 1990, I was at a fishing tournament when there was an accident. An ambulance was needed. A young lady got into her boyfriend’s truck, turned on his cellphone, and called 911 to report the accident. The ambulance arrived in about 15 minutes. And a county sheriff arrived a few minutes later.
While the ambulance was loading up, the deputy sheriff asked who called the ambulance. The young lady was pointed out. This led the sheriff to her boyfriend, who happened to have an outstanding arrest warrant from several states away. The boyfriend got a free ride back into town to the lock-up.
Some people knew the deputy sheriff. They asked him how the sheriff knew where to find the guy with the warrant, especially since he was from out of state. He said that the cellphone the young lady used had not been turned on in 30 days… until that evening.
Within 10 minutes of the cellphone being activated, the FBI – which was monitoring cellular traffic with the willing assistance of the cellular provider – was notified that the cellular phone was active. They determined the location of the phone by triangulation from several surrounding cell towers that were “pinged” (this was before GPS was used in cellular communications). And the sheriff’s office received a map by fax from the FBI with orders to take the boyfriend into custody. The sheriff even showed us the map!
This was in 1990. We lost our freedom and privacy a long time ago. The commoners just weren’t told about it. And it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.
The American people have gone soft, just like all the other societies down through history. Our government had long before gone corrupt and the Great American Experiment had been put back into the test tube. It is no mystery how it will end… Just crack a history book – we are just the latest chapter.
– Doug M.
Doug’s not the only one who dislikes the way phone companies handle our data…
Wake up and smell the coffee? It’s too late for that. The governments can only track the phone’s signal. They might know where you are, but not who you are. That info has to come from the carrier/phone company. That should be the real concern. All people will do is complain about it. The days of people standing up and actually doing something are gone.
– John A.
Chris, I read your article regarding the tracking of cell phones as a back-door surveillance tool for the government.
I know this has been going on for quite some time. And with new technology being released at an exponential rate, more surveillance is inevitable. My question is… when will Americans finally have enough of this crap and start standing up to these technology companies and Big Government?
I used to think that an American was someone to be admired… a rugged individual with a can-do attitude… someone with the backbone to make a better life for himself and his family. Sadly, those days are many generations behind us.
– Steve Y.
It’s still debatable that we can call ourselves the land of the free. But we are undeniably no longer the home of the brave.
– Sadie R.
What’s your view? Is it reasonable to give up some of your privacy to help the government beat the coronavirus? Or do you worry that it’s too dear a price to pay?
Let us know your thoughts at [email protected].
Regards,
 |
Chris Lowe
April 15, 2020
Dublin, Ireland
Like what you’re reading? Send your thoughts to [email protected].