Coronavirus

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Beachcomber
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:08 am

Google has surreptitiously installed onto everyone's Android phone something called 'COVID-19 exposure notifications'. (Settings>Google Services and Preferences)

It is set to off by default and only works when a participating app is installed but how long will it be before a 'participating app' is forciblly installed and Bluetooth set so that it cannot be switched off?

Remember, Google is renown for manipulating search results and censoring You Tube channels and videos that don't conform to its political agenda so installing and activating an uninstallable app on to all Android phones is not beyond the realms of possibility.

elusive
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby elusive » Mon Oct 26, 2020 10:07 am

Pamela1 wrote: Sun Oct 25, 2020 8:08 pm I think surface contact has a huge part to play in it, it's so easy to touch your face at any given time without always remembering to wash or sanitise your hands. All it takes is to open a door or use a hand rail, take a receipt or coins from a shop assistant.In bars and restaurants your glass, plate, knife /fork are touched by someone before you.
The local Glaxosmithkline have had quite a number of cases, the staff each wear a devise which beeps if they get within a certain distance of one another and they all wear masks. They could have been infected outside the factory but i do think surface contact has a big part to play in it.
Very true. But tbh that makes it pretty impossible not to touch things. You can drive yourself mad and you would be putting gel on your hands every 5 secs! We will all make ourselves paranoid to the point where some ppl wont go out. I try to make an effort not to touch things as much. Like pulling a chair out with my foot rather than touching the back of but realistically theres only so much you can and looking at the figures you would have to be very unlucky to get it in the first place. Something ppl forget when its in your face all the time

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Wicksey
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Wicksey » Mon Oct 26, 2020 10:41 am

Beachcomber wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:08 am Google has surreptitiously installed onto everyone's Android phone something called 'COVID-19 exposure notifications'. (Settings>Google Services and Preferences)

It is set to off by default and only works when a participating app is installed but how long will it be before a 'participating app' is forciblly installed and Bluetooth set so that it cannot be switched off?
I couldn't find those settings on my Android. As I don't have a contract for internet data on my phone, and usually have it switched off when I'm out, then I don't think it will affect me. As we have little or no phone signal at our house we have got out of the habit of using the phone as a phone, so we keep it on flight mode all the time otherwise it drains the battery trying to connect. The only time I switch it onto phone is when I'm expecting a Dr's phone appointment. Hopefully this way the tracing app wouldn't get me!

Beachcomber
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:39 pm

It is here on my phone:

Covid notifications.jpg

Lavanda
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Lavanda » Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:17 pm

Does that not want you to chuck your phone in a bin and get just a phone?

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firsttango
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby firsttango » Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:32 pm


katy
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby katy » Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:47 pm

Twitter and Google have enormous power in the world as they are now only permitting one opinion. Whilst refusing to take off posts showing child abuse or beheadings they are deleting anti mask posts like this.
From unheard.com


Masks work? NO.” Scott Atlas, a member of Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force, wrote a tweet the Saturday before last that opened with these words — only to find it deleted by Twitter a day later. In the offending tweet, Atlas had written that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had both recommended against mask-wearing, and had in fact argued that it could cause “many harms”.

This violated Twitter’s policy against Covid-19 misinformation, so it had to go. As the New York Times noted, both the WHO and the CDC do recommend wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus.

The only problem is this: mere months ago, both the WHO and the CDC both had argued — in fact, argued very confidently — against the use of masks, just as Atlas said. It won’t do to ignore this rather inconvenient fact, as the New York Times did, or to pretend the statements were never made. That’s because the Atlas affair provides an object lesson in how overconfident claims by experts, especially on issues as fraught as Covid-19, can come back to bite them.
Last edited by katy on Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Coronavirus

Postby katy » Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:49 pm

We may all have to buy those one day :think:

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firsttango
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby firsttango » Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:53 pm

katy wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:49 pm
We may all have to buy those one day :think:
Sooner rather than latter imo :wink:

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Wicksey
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Wicksey » Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:03 pm

Beachcomber wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:39 pm It is here on my phone:
Covid notifications.jpg
That's different from the configuration on my phone and I cannot see any mention of a Covid app. Maybe they haven't got to me yet :think:

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Re: Coronavirus

Postby markwilding » Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:33 pm

That's because you haven't downloaded it. You have to download it and give it permission to access Bluetooth. Contrary to earlier posts, you don't have to download and use it but government advice is that you should. As you have flight mode on, It wouldn't work anyway.

My wife, who worries far more than me about privacy, uses it but I have decided not to but my reasons have nothing to do with security or privacy worries, more to do with selfish reasons.
This article has a balanced argument with the pros and cons of Bluetooth
https://vpnoverview.com/privacy/devices/bluetooth/
Last edited by markwilding on Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Beachcomber
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:56 pm

I certainly didn't download it. It just appeared after a Google update explained here:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/a ... 8358?hl=en

which is more or less what I said:

Beachcomber wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:08 am Google has surreptitiously installed onto everyone's Android phone something called 'COVID-19 exposure notifications'. (Settings>Google Services and Preferences)

It is set to off by default and only works when a participating app is installed but how long will it be before a 'participating app' is forciblly installed and Bluetooth set so that it cannot be switched off...
I don't think any earlier posts have indicated that one had to download the app. I certainly didn't.

markwilding
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby markwilding » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:17 pm

Yes but for it to work you must download the official one for the country as well.

Use the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications System on your Android phone
To help understand whether you've been exposed to someone who reports having COVID-19, you can turn on Exposure Notifications. If you change your mind, you can turn it off.

To use the system, you need to download an official app from your region’s government public health authority.

If you have COVID-19, you may share that info with your app to help alert the people you've been in contact with.
If you've been exposed to someone who has shared they have COVID-19, your app will notify you and give you further instructions.

How your phone got the update
Your Android phone regularly gets updates in the background. The Exposure Notifications System was introduced in an update to Google Play Services.

The system is turned off by default. This technology only works if you decide to opt-in. If you change your mind, you can turn it off at any time.

Beachcomber
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:23 pm

I did say, twice, that it 'only works when a participating app is installed'.

markwilding
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby markwilding » Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:37 pm

Yes, now I see that you did. But to be clear you need to opt in so users don't need to do anything if they don't want to participate.

I don't trust the app because it takes out the human element. I'm having to deal with decisions on quarantines and isolations on a daily basis including a conversation in the last 15 minutes and for me the contact tracers offer better and more precise advice. The rule is that you have to have been in contact with someone, who has tested positive, within 1.5 metres and with no mask for more than 15 minutes.

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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Benal Pirate » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:37 pm

"The rule is that you have to have been in contact with someone, who has tested positive, within 1.5 metres and with no mask for more than 15 minutes".

It would have to be a pretty clever app to follow that rule..i.e. to know whether you were wearing a mask or not.

Beachcomber
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Beachcomber » Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:46 pm

Yes, the whole thing makes a complete nonsense of having to wear a mask at all. In fact, Tony Fauci of the CDC initially said that masks should not be worn by the public:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6pEcgDmEUk

markwilding
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby markwilding » Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:32 pm

Benal Pirate wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 4:37 pm "The rule is that you have to have been in contact with someone, who has tested positive, within 1.5 metres and with no mask for more than 15 minutes".

It would have to be a pretty clever app to follow that rule..i.e. to know whether you were wearing a mask or not.
That’s why I prefer the contact tracers and have not downloaded the app. They have more information.

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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Lavanda » Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:14 pm

My 97-year old Dad fell out of bed two nights ago and was taken by paramedics to the local hospital as a precaution and for a check over. He and Mum both have a slight chest infection and are being treated with antibiotics. He was due home this morning but, somehow, someway, somewhere, a person on the ward has been infected with Covid-19. No one seems to know if it is from an existing or a new patient, a member of staff or a visitor. The person who has tested positive has been isolated but so has the whole ward. All the patients have been tested and Dad is negative. He will be tested again in TWO days and if he is still negative he will go home — where, presumably, he may infect my Mum a few days later. I have no idea what to think about this incredibly shambolic state of affairs but it sums up the whole thing perfectly. Watch this space ...

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Devils Advocate
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Re: Coronavirus

Postby Devils Advocate » Mon Oct 26, 2020 7:41 pm

Worrying for you Lavanda, I hope your Dad is back home asap in good health.
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