North Dakota's COVID-19 App Has Been Sending Data To Foursquare and Google

The official COVID-19 contact-tracing app for the state of North Dakota, designed to detect whether people have potentially been exposed to the coronavirus, sends location data and a unique user identifier to Foursquare -- and other data to Google and a bug-tracking company -- according to a new report from smartphone privacy company Jumbo Privacy. From a report: The app, called Care19, and produced by a company called ProudCrowd that also makes a location-based social networking app for North Dakota State sports fans, generates a random ID number for each person who uses it. Then, it can "anonymously cache the individual's locations throughout the day," storing information about where people spent at least 10 minutes at a time, according to the state website. If users test positive for the coronavirus, they can provide that information to the North Dakota Department of Health for contact-tracing purposes so that other people who spent time near virus patients can potentially be notified. According to the app's privacy policy, "location data is private to you and is stored securely on ProudCrowd, LLC servers" and won't be shared with third parties "unless you consent or ProudCrowd is compelled under federal regulations."

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

There's internet in North Dakota?

There is. But the government of ND doesn't have the technical expertise and infrastructure to run a contact tracking program. So OF COURSE the data will be managed by a private company, and Google is likely better qualified than anyone.

The real question is not why Google has the tracking data, but why the government has it.

The raw tracking data is collected by cell phones, which means mostly Google and Apple. The data is then analyzed by Google to locate possible contacts. Google can then pass the names

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

The British government does have the resources but still managed to send data to Google. They had crash analysis enabled using Google's analytic tools.

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[flyingfsck]

I would think that Google already has everything and don't need an app for that.

Re: I think tracking

[Train0987]

It is now. So many people have voluntarily surrendered all their rights to people who demonstrably lie to them every day that I'm sure even those tyrants are surprised. No way they'll let this opportunity go to waste.

Where are those who were telling us just yesterday that these apps would never do this?

Re:

[Grand Facade]

"Im not doing anything wrong, it's ok to track me."

Next thing that will happen is you will get speeding tickets by the tracking data from your phone!

How the fuck is it illegal

[Actually, I do RTFA]

How is it illegal? People are opting in to being tracked. Hell, most people are already sending their location datastream to Google because they have Android phones. And this data is going to a private company because they built an API this company used to make their software. It's literally what happens all the time in most of the case.

If you want better privacy protections, I agree with you! But this isn't a governmental invasion of privacy - it's Google's continued invasion of the world's privacy.

Re:

[Grand Facade]

Sorry I don't see a difference.

And I'm not opting into shit.

I wonder what the 2 late night updates than have been pushed to my phone recently contain?

Re:

[fph il quozientatore]

Sure, they are opting in. But around the world someone has already started putting "no tracker no service" signs. (Discussed, for instance, here https://www.brookings.edu/tech... [brookings.edu] ).

From TFA

[rsilvergun]

According to the app’s privacy policy, “location data is private to you and is stored securely on ProudCrowd, LLC servers” and won’t be shared with third parties “unless you consent or ProudCrowd is compelled under federal regulations.”

At a minimum that's fraud, and I'm sure some enterprising young lawyer will be happy to fire up a class action lawsuit.

Other than that, yeah, it's kind of silly to worry about being tracked if you own a smart phone. You're trading pri

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Just because someone cons you into giving up information to them that they shouldn't have and don't have the right to have in the first place doens't mean that conning people into it isn't illegal, it's very specifically illegal, and just because a government agency is doing the conning doens't mean they get away with it either.

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[markdavis]

>"How is it illegal? People are opting in to being tracked."

Are you arguing with yourself? The summary didn't say anything about it being illegal and you aren't replying to anyone. Perhaps I missed something?

That doesn't mean we can't be concerned about what the app is doing, especially to the droves of people who have no concept about how these things can, do, or should work and what potential dangers are present...

Personally, I find the way it works to be inappropriate. My primary concern is that th

Re:

[guruevi]

The UK COVID-19 app is open source. It's just as bad as it is capable of doing GPS and device tracking and likewise riddled with security bugs.

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[currently_awake]

The government (police) already have your location data from the cell tower pings, and the intelligence agencies already have full access to all voice and network traffic. The only scandal here is Google getting everything for their add networks.

Foursquare?

[93 Escort Wagon]

People are "checking in" with COVID-19?

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[fahrbot-bot]

People are "checking in" with COVID-19?

After the court ruling in Wisconsin overturning the state's stay-at-home order, sure ... "COVID-19, party of 5?"

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

When we were younger, my brother would check in at restaurants under the last name "Donner" on the hopes of hearing the announcement "Donner Party [wikipedia.org], your table is ready".

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[fahrbot-bot]

When we were younger, my brother would check in at restaurants under the last name "Donner" on the hopes of hearing the announcement "Donner Party [wikipedia.org], your table is ready".

I had a friend who use to check into DC restaurants using "Conservative" ... "Conservative Party, your table is ready."

Re:

[barakn]

And now I desperately want to check in with the name 'Sausage.'

Of course!

[nospam007]

North Dakota is the worst of the Dakotas.

Re:

[olsmeister]

Worse than that Fanning girl?

Re:

[libra-dragon]

Can't be worse than Johnson.

Re:

[alvinrod]

Careful now, they've got a pretty big nuclear arsenal [theonion.com]. Might not want to antagonize them so be quick and say nice things about Lutefisk and polka to keep them distracted.

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

No, North Dakota is BEST Dakota! Supreme Dakota Leader says so!
One day South Dakota will see the error of it's ways and then there will be the Great Re-Unification of the Dakotas!
xD

The government is killing people

[Anonymous Coward]

This just goes to show that the government is untrustworthy with all of our tracked data. (As if you needed more evidence.)

People don't trust the government with their data, for any number of reasons, and so they will _not_ use the apps provided by the government for public health purposes.

This directly leads to the deaths of citizens. If the government weren't so absolutely hell-bent on tracking everything about every one, perhaps people could trust them.. but instead, the absolute Big Brother behavior of

Re:

[currently_awake]

If you want to stop the government spying on everyone then you need to figure out how to make a cellphone network that can't be used to track people. That's the big one we can't live without.

Well, duh ...

[fahrbot-bot]

The official COVID-19 contact-tracing app for the state of North Dakota ... sends location data and a unique user identifier to Foursquare -- and other data to Google and a bug-tracking company ...

Colloquially, COVID-19 is a "bug" so ...

This is why we can't have nice things

[NoMoreACs]

Congress (or better yet, an Executive Order) needs to be created pronto to enjoin any Contact-Tracing system not being used specifically for tracking criminals on supervised release from collecting, storing, or transmitting information on the user's location.

Re:

[seth_hartbecke]

Actually, I think you have that a bit reversed.

Congress (and NOT AT ALL AN executive order) needs to make a stand here.

We all need to stop waiting for the strongman to save us. Be that an executive (governor/president) or a company (apple/google).

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[Insanity Defense]

Congress (or better yet, an Executive Order) needs to be created pronto to enjoin any Contact-Tracing system not being used specifically for tracking criminals on supervised release from collecting, storing, or transmitting information on the user's location.

No. If it is an Executive order it can quietly be removed at any time by the current or any future President. A law is harder to undo.

ND = 26 less deaths

[TRM1361]

North Dakota has had 26 less deaths in the first 16 weeks of 2020 than they had for the same period 2016-19 (averaged). The entire USA has an "excess death" rateabout 5.5% (50,331) higher than the 4 year average. As of 2020-05-22 the CDC data has North Carolina missing week 16 for 2020. The rest of the states are complete. In some online discussions some were suggesting using "excess deaths" to see what effect the covid-19 disease is having and I thought that would be a reasonable approach as it gets past

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[110010001000]

Oh wait, I forgot we had to destroy the economy because otherwise millions would die. Except that didn't happen in Sweden. Sweden has a lower death rate than France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, etc. I'm sure the experts know what is best though.

Re:

[currently_awake]

Having half the population not doing dangerous things like driving in cars has a massive effect on death rates.

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[flyingfsck]

In South Africa, the deaths went down by 2000 per month. So Covid is saving many lives.

Right out the gate: surveillance and tracking

[Rick Schumann]

So many of you were so gods-be-damned sure: "Oh, no, Apple and Google say it'll be anonymized, no personal information, no GPS tracking, it's totally anonymous!"
So what's the first thing we hear? That it's using a personally identifiable tracking number and providing GPS data, all of which is being transmitted and stored.
Seriously, when are you people going to wake the fuck up and stop believing these assholes?

Wean yourself off smartphones and take back at least a smidgen of your privacy already. You

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

This isn't the Apple/Google collaboration (which has not gone live). This is a ND specific app, written by the lowest bidder. Was the bidder going to monetize all the data to offset the low bid, maybe. But certainly the bidder used 3rd party libraries which were given away so the library authors could monetize the data.

It's not just the tracking

[Grand Facade]

If that was all there was to it.

It's the monetizing of that data.

How long do you think it will be before you get speeding tickets in the mail from data gathered from your phone?
All in the name of public safety, right?

Re:

[flyingfsck]

Of course yes. Just think of the children.