The solution to this problem is simple. Find the name of the APK file (Android) or .ipa/.ipsw the creeps installed on your phone. Save the name. Zap the file. Make a text file, save it with the same name and extension as the creeps' app. Log into your phone with any terminal program like PuTTY. CHMOD your spiffy new file to 0.0.0%. Now your phone will report back that the app is installed and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Bonus points if you write RESISTANCE TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD (Massachusetts' first state motto) in the text file.
Sounds like we are on our way to a social credit type system to track the unvaxxed, conspiracy theorists, conservatives, climate deniers, pronoun refusers etc. What does that evil ghoul, Klaus Schwab, like to say? “You will own nothing and be happy.” The infrastructure to track our happiness looks like it is in the process of being built Brock by brick. Good times indeed.
I’ve been thinking the same thing for the past year. My “dumbphone” is now threatening to stop working on me and I’ve been scavenging eBay for a backup.
I think this is a tremendous opportunity for Nokia to bring back its original 3310 (I believe it was the 3310.) Not the "remix" they released a couple of years back. The original, sans internet.
It's not easy to pull the thread of reality on this one, as MassPH is being completely opaque about the whole thing, but it is being reported in a few places that the people who had this pushed to their phones had given 'permission' as part of the fine print when they supplied their phone numbers on their vaccination paperwork. So in addition to promoting suspicion of vaccination efforts by sneaking in stealth consent to privacy intrusions via 'terms and conditions' hijinx that would land a savings and loan in jail if they tried it, they are only distributing this app to people who have absolutely no need to know if they've been in contact with a COVID case because they're already immune. By the time this is over Departments of Public Health will be held in lower regard than the DMV, Comcast, and telemarketers rolled into one. If they aren't already.
People who've been "fully vaxxed" are not immune. None of the EUAs for any of the "vaccines" claim to prevent infection or transmission of the virus. They only claim to mitigate symptoms with infection.
About a month ago, CDC lowered the PCR cycle threshold to 28 cycles for the "fully vaxxed". A short time later, they announced that they would no longer report breakthrough infections unless they resulted in hospitalization or death.
Early data suggests the "vaccines" reduce viral transmission, but the study is ongoing. The jab protects the recipient and no one else.
The only truly immune people...likely against all variants for years...are the C19 recovered.
I really like the sleight of hand the CDC is doing regarding testing. If one is "fully vaxed", they'll test like it was supposed to be done before March 2020.
If not, ramp up the CT!! And if one is positive, it doesn't matter if one is capable of running a marathon - it's a case.
Of course, this will give the impression vaccines are super, duper effective
There is plenty of other data to show that many of the vaccines are extraordinarily effective. The PCR test threshold is not about you, it is about the likelihood that you will cause the people around you to become sick. I haven't been able to find information specifically explaining the change from the original sources, but I would guess it reflects our knowledge that vaccinated individuals have been proven to be less capable of transmitting the disease to their friends and associates during said marathon.
> The only truly immune people...likely against all variants for years...are the C19 recovered
What is your citation for this? Nothing will grant true perfect immunity, except a genie. That is not how your immune system functions.
PCR testing is inappropriate for determining infectiousness, and "we" knew that back in the 1990s when Kary Mullis--the inventor of PCR--was saying as much. Unsure why the CDC continues to act like PCR is a gold standard or protects anyone, but it is neither.
FTA: "In light of our findings that more than half of individuals with positive PCR test results are unlikely to have been infectious, RT-PCR test positivity should not be taken as an accurate measure of infectious SARS-CoV-2 incidence. Our results confirm the findings of others that the routine use of “positive” RT-PCR test results as the gold standard for assessing and controlling infectiousness fails to reflect the fact “that 50-75% of the time an individual is PCR positive, they are likely to be post-infectious” [7]."
Both Apple and Google created a system (they called it "framework") to help track individuals and notify them if they have been exposed to a "confirmed" case. If you are running the latest software in your phone (in other words, if you have automatic updates enabled), there is a great possibility it has been installed. Now by default, that should be disabled. How notification & tracing works depends; for some locations you need an additional app, for others (as it seems to be the case in the article) it doesn't.
I suspect many people are completely unaware this "framework" is installed on their phones.
Unfortunately I don't know where it is exactly located in iPhones. In Android, it is part of the Google Play Services. Sadly, you cannot remove the framework individually unless you uninstall the Google Play Services update and revert back to a previous version. Unfortunately, it will eventually be reinstalled if the Play Store is enabled.
You could disable Google Play services, but some apps may complain about that. There seems to be a way to keep it from updating, but it doesn't look easy. So the easiest route would be to disable Play Store, but you would have to manually update the other apps.
Other options...only carry the phone when really necessary. Or turn location services on only when needed. Or...switch to the classic, dumb cellphone.
Anyways, it really makes me laugh when they say privacy will be respected, specially coming from Google. Smartphones by default collect and share tons & tons of user data. Governments' job is really easy.
Dunno. They tout better security and better tools to curb tracking by 3rd party apps, but they are part of the PRISM program leaked by Snowden. And now they developed the exposure & tracing framework, which can be used by Public Health bureaucrats.
Also, see how Apple is being accused of catering to the CCP by weakening privacy for Chinese users. So in the end, it's government regulations & laws that weaken privacy and big business getting cozy with them.
Look, Bad Cat, why are you so worried? As they have told us for years, if you have not done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear! By the way, if I kill myself in prison, please be advised that I did NOT commit suicide. That is all...
I was initially quite skeptical too, since "trust us" is not a good argument, but since I am a practitioner in the arts and know what their terms mean, I can now perhaps help address your questions and unpack some of this for you.
> it is just an app that tracks you
This is actually just the definition of being a useful phone: it is a device that enables calls to find their way to you, and not some other random phone. The app is distinct not in that it tracks you, but that it only collects and shares this information in a privacy-focused way.
> somehow knows everyone’s disease status
You have to manually click a button to say "I'd like to warn people I was nearby that an anonymous person is sick who in their proximity." It is not magic, and it has no actual knowledge of your health. Though Apple also has their Health app, which you could use to also log your health, the two apps are not connected and don't share data.
> developed with google and apple but claiming not to share data with them.
This general class of study is known as "homomorphic encryption" and is entirely feasible, though the math is really heavy for the general problem. But in simple terms, only random numbers normally and sent from or to your phone, unless you decide to notify people of possible infection. Until you notify your proximity bubble of your infectiveness status, and only if you opted into the app, the data remains securely located only on your phone.
Apple developed this algorithm a few years ago to help you find lost or stolen iPhones in a privacy-preserving way, which is why it is on by default. It can now also help you find lost keys and such with their new tags, entirely without the ability for Apple to track their location.
The issue here is that it seems an app installed without user consent. The actual framework was installed automatically, either by updating iOS (Apple) or by updating Google Play Services (Android). It's supposed to be off by default and also, Bluetooth must be enabled for it to work.
The complain is that MassNotify (a public health - government app) apparently installed without consent. And this is not good, IMHO. In fact, any app installed without user consent should be considered suspicious.
Please check your assumptions here: an app named MassNotify (or any similar such name) does not exist, so you are arguing against an event that did not happen. MassNotify is instead the administrative and support side of the feature.
I commend your skepticism. There are apps in use in some countries that should be fought for precisely the reasons outlined above. Let's join in fighting against those, in favor of proven technologies. And let's hold Apple/Google responsible for proving it. In exchange, I would ask that you perform more deep research before making dramatic claims that are based in triggering fear and not fact.
Now that seems like the real billion dollar question: if anyone could answer that, it would be worth a billion dollars. In practical terms, my suggestion would be that whenever you want to know if something is true, search google for the opposite of it. I find that trick helps strip away my biases and helps me compare the actual arguments of each side, and usually I come away surprised. (That is how I ended up here.)
And an installation of a framework with capability of tracking users could be/is already questionable by many. Ideally, users should have been given the option to refuse the installation of said framework.
That framework exists by the simple fact that it can receive phone calls. You opted into that ability the day you bought your first phone line, whether that was yesterday or 30 years ago, on a dumb phone or a smart phone, by asking them to send you phone calls. You can temporarily opt-out at any moment by turning off your phone.
To reemphasize my first point, the app does not create the framework for tracking–that has always existing. Instead, its purpose is to give you a privacy-centered option to share access to the existing data, if you opt in.
Scorcher, hermano. Brilliant. But, hey, Panopticon gonna' panopticon, am I right? If you rule by bread and circus (and psychological operations and synthetic endocrine disruptors and Mockingbird media and a dangerously dumbed-down educational system), and you can tell that in about three to five years you won't be able to provide bread and circus, that whole "opt in" to the digital ID just don't fly, man. If you think January 21 2021 was a clusterfuck, just wait till January 21, 2025.
The solution to this problem is simple. Find the name of the APK file (Android) or .ipa/.ipsw the creeps installed on your phone. Save the name. Zap the file. Make a text file, save it with the same name and extension as the creeps' app. Log into your phone with any terminal program like PuTTY. CHMOD your spiffy new file to 0.0.0%. Now your phone will report back that the app is installed and there's not a damn thing they can do about it. Bonus points if you write RESISTANCE TO TYRANTS IS OBEDIENCE TO GOD (Massachusetts' first state motto) in the text file.
Sounds like we are on our way to a social credit type system to track the unvaxxed, conspiracy theorists, conservatives, climate deniers, pronoun refusers etc. What does that evil ghoul, Klaus Schwab, like to say? “You will own nothing and be happy.” The infrastructure to track our happiness looks like it is in the process of being built Brock by brick. Good times indeed.
*brick
Perhaps another reason to be happy that my cellphone isn't a smartphone?
If this spreads to other states, I will go back to a flip 🙀
I’ve been thinking the same thing for the past year. My “dumbphone” is now threatening to stop working on me and I’ve been scavenging eBay for a backup.
I think this is a tremendous opportunity for Nokia to bring back its original 3310 (I believe it was the 3310.) Not the "remix" they released a couple of years back. The original, sans internet.
It's not easy to pull the thread of reality on this one, as MassPH is being completely opaque about the whole thing, but it is being reported in a few places that the people who had this pushed to their phones had given 'permission' as part of the fine print when they supplied their phone numbers on their vaccination paperwork. So in addition to promoting suspicion of vaccination efforts by sneaking in stealth consent to privacy intrusions via 'terms and conditions' hijinx that would land a savings and loan in jail if they tried it, they are only distributing this app to people who have absolutely no need to know if they've been in contact with a COVID case because they're already immune. By the time this is over Departments of Public Health will be held in lower regard than the DMV, Comcast, and telemarketers rolled into one. If they aren't already.
People who've been "fully vaxxed" are not immune. None of the EUAs for any of the "vaccines" claim to prevent infection or transmission of the virus. They only claim to mitigate symptoms with infection.
About a month ago, CDC lowered the PCR cycle threshold to 28 cycles for the "fully vaxxed". A short time later, they announced that they would no longer report breakthrough infections unless they resulted in hospitalization or death.
Early data suggests the "vaccines" reduce viral transmission, but the study is ongoing. The jab protects the recipient and no one else.
The only truly immune people...likely against all variants for years...are the C19 recovered.
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-departments/breakthrough-cases.html
I really like the sleight of hand the CDC is doing regarding testing. If one is "fully vaxed", they'll test like it was supposed to be done before March 2020.
If not, ramp up the CT!! And if one is positive, it doesn't matter if one is capable of running a marathon - it's a case.
Of course, this will give the impression vaccines are super, duper effective
There is plenty of other data to show that many of the vaccines are extraordinarily effective. The PCR test threshold is not about you, it is about the likelihood that you will cause the people around you to become sick. I haven't been able to find information specifically explaining the change from the original sources, but I would guess it reflects our knowledge that vaccinated individuals have been proven to be less capable of transmitting the disease to their friends and associates during said marathon.
> The only truly immune people...likely against all variants for years...are the C19 recovered
What is your citation for this? Nothing will grant true perfect immunity, except a genie. That is not how your immune system functions.
PCR testing is inappropriate for determining infectiousness, and "we" knew that back in the 1990s when Kary Mullis--the inventor of PCR--was saying as much. Unsure why the CDC continues to act like PCR is a gold standard or protects anyone, but it is neither.
https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(21)00265-6/fulltext
FTA: "In light of our findings that more than half of individuals with positive PCR test results are unlikely to have been infectious, RT-PCR test positivity should not be taken as an accurate measure of infectious SARS-CoV-2 incidence. Our results confirm the findings of others that the routine use of “positive” RT-PCR test results as the gold standard for assessing and controlling infectiousness fails to reflect the fact “that 50-75% of the time an individual is PCR positive, they are likely to be post-infectious” [7]."
“By enabling MassNotify on your smartphone, YOU HAVE THE POWER to help...”. (emphasis mine) Ya right, comrade.
Both Apple and Google created a system (they called it "framework") to help track individuals and notify them if they have been exposed to a "confirmed" case. If you are running the latest software in your phone (in other words, if you have automatic updates enabled), there is a great possibility it has been installed. Now by default, that should be disabled. How notification & tracing works depends; for some locations you need an additional app, for others (as it seems to be the case in the article) it doesn't.
I suspect many people are completely unaware this "framework" is installed on their phones.
Unfortunately I don't know where it is exactly located in iPhones. In Android, it is part of the Google Play Services. Sadly, you cannot remove the framework individually unless you uninstall the Google Play Services update and revert back to a previous version. Unfortunately, it will eventually be reinstalled if the Play Store is enabled.
You could disable Google Play services, but some apps may complain about that. There seems to be a way to keep it from updating, but it doesn't look easy. So the easiest route would be to disable Play Store, but you would have to manually update the other apps.
Other options...only carry the phone when really necessary. Or turn location services on only when needed. Or...switch to the classic, dumb cellphone.
Anyways, it really makes me laugh when they say privacy will be respected, specially coming from Google. Smartphones by default collect and share tons & tons of user data. Governments' job is really easy.
Isn’t Apple supposed to be better about protecting privacy? Or is that a fallacy, I wonder.
Dunno. They tout better security and better tools to curb tracking by 3rd party apps, but they are part of the PRISM program leaked by Snowden. And now they developed the exposure & tracing framework, which can be used by Public Health bureaucrats.
Also, see how Apple is being accused of catering to the CCP by weakening privacy for Chinese users. So in the end, it's government regulations & laws that weaken privacy and big business getting cozy with them.
Look, Bad Cat, why are you so worried? As they have told us for years, if you have not done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear! By the way, if I kill myself in prison, please be advised that I did NOT commit suicide. That is all...
I always absolutely hated that argument. People don't understand that "wrong" changes definitions based on who is in power and their needs.
opportunity for data miners
imagine if they went after guns in the hood
long as i keep my dumb phone. 4g and limited email google
Succinct writing
I was initially quite skeptical too, since "trust us" is not a good argument, but since I am a practitioner in the arts and know what their terms mean, I can now perhaps help address your questions and unpack some of this for you.
> it is just an app that tracks you
This is actually just the definition of being a useful phone: it is a device that enables calls to find their way to you, and not some other random phone. The app is distinct not in that it tracks you, but that it only collects and shares this information in a privacy-focused way.
> somehow knows everyone’s disease status
You have to manually click a button to say "I'd like to warn people I was nearby that an anonymous person is sick who in their proximity." It is not magic, and it has no actual knowledge of your health. Though Apple also has their Health app, which you could use to also log your health, the two apps are not connected and don't share data.
> developed with google and apple but claiming not to share data with them.
This general class of study is known as "homomorphic encryption" and is entirely feasible, though the math is really heavy for the general problem. But in simple terms, only random numbers normally and sent from or to your phone, unless you decide to notify people of possible infection. Until you notify your proximity bubble of your infectiveness status, and only if you opted into the app, the data remains securely located only on your phone.
Apple developed this algorithm a few years ago to help you find lost or stolen iPhones in a privacy-preserving way, which is why it is on by default. It can now also help you find lost keys and such with their new tags, entirely without the ability for Apple to track their location.
The issue here is that it seems an app installed without user consent. The actual framework was installed automatically, either by updating iOS (Apple) or by updating Google Play Services (Android). It's supposed to be off by default and also, Bluetooth must be enabled for it to work.
The complain is that MassNotify (a public health - government app) apparently installed without consent. And this is not good, IMHO. In fact, any app installed without user consent should be considered suspicious.
Please check your assumptions here: an app named MassNotify (or any similar such name) does not exist, so you are arguing against an event that did not happen. MassNotify is instead the administrative and support side of the feature.
So, this does not exist then? The persons that are complaining don't exist?
https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/massachusetts-massnotify-app-consent/
And you are ignoring the fact that this apparently happened without their consent
Ah, thanks for the correction. It is not named MassNotify, and only seems to appear on Android as a separate app (here is the actual link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.ma.covid19.exposurenotifications.v3&hl=en_US&gl=US). That does not change any of the technical information I explained in my first post, of which you seem to have not been aware.
I commend your skepticism. There are apps in use in some countries that should be fought for precisely the reasons outlined above. Let's join in fighting against those, in favor of proven technologies. And let's hold Apple/Google responsible for proving it. In exchange, I would ask that you perform more deep research before making dramatic claims that are based in triggering fear and not fact.
"In exchange, I would ask that you perform more deep research before making dramatic claims that are based in triggering fear and not fact"
May I know where?
Now that seems like the real billion dollar question: if anyone could answer that, it would be worth a billion dollars. In practical terms, my suggestion would be that whenever you want to know if something is true, search google for the opposite of it. I find that trick helps strip away my biases and helps me compare the actual arguments of each side, and usually I come away surprised. (That is how I ended up here.)
And an installation of a framework with capability of tracking users could be/is already questionable by many. Ideally, users should have been given the option to refuse the installation of said framework.
That framework exists by the simple fact that it can receive phone calls. You opted into that ability the day you bought your first phone line, whether that was yesterday or 30 years ago, on a dumb phone or a smart phone, by asking them to send you phone calls. You can temporarily opt-out at any moment by turning off your phone.
To reemphasize my first point, the app does not create the framework for tracking–that has always existing. Instead, its purpose is to give you a privacy-centered option to share access to the existing data, if you opt in.
Scorcher, hermano. Brilliant. But, hey, Panopticon gonna' panopticon, am I right? If you rule by bread and circus (and psychological operations and synthetic endocrine disruptors and Mockingbird media and a dangerously dumbed-down educational system), and you can tell that in about three to five years you won't be able to provide bread and circus, that whole "opt in" to the digital ID just don't fly, man. If you think January 21 2021 was a clusterfuck, just wait till January 21, 2025.
How do we stop it?
I wonder if changing your phone or phone number would help...