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Meanwhile, in Germany, 2 ministers (one acting, one former) have wiped their phones, including text messages, although there were ongoing investigations in misc

Meanwhile, in Germany, 2 ministers (one acting, one former) have wiped their phones, including text messages, although there were ongoing investigations in misconduct. These are the people who are now using Corona to gain access to our location data collected by our phones. One set of rules for the rich, one set of rules for the poor.

aleksaxyz 7y ago
Please be specific? I looked up "Germany ministers wiped phone" and saw a story about how the overall Defense Ministry wiped a phone of someone related to military contracts. What does that have to do with COVID-19 and data collection?
- xnyan 7y ago
  I would assume they are referring to the to the widespread [1,2,3] use of data gathered from smartphones for getting epidemiological data. Every nation is doing it. I would say it's not a great comparison, bad actors wiping their phone is not the same as gathering of bulk data to address a pandemic. 1) https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615329/coronavirus-south-korea-smartphone-app-quarantine/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615329/coronavirus-south-... 2) https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/14/coronavirus-spy-apps-israel-joins-iran-and-china-tracking-citizens-smartphones-to-fight-covid-19/#5e444c31781b https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/14/coronavir... 3) https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200330/United-States-tracking-mobile-phones-to-map-spread-of-COVID-19.aspx https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200330/United-States-tra...
  - jacobush 7y ago
    Sweden is not using smartphone or base station location data for tracking of Corona. https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/coronaviruset-och-digital-smittsparning/ https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/coronaviruset-och-di...
- turbinerneiter 7y ago
  It's related to the COVID data gathering in a quite simple way: the government is telling the people gathering this data helps containing the disease and that they can be trusted to not abuse that data. This trust however is severely undermined by a lot of factors, like past abuses which came out due to Snowden, the continued push to collect data with claims of fighting terror or other crime - and, in my opinion, also extreme difference in transparency that politicians ask from citizens versus the transparency they themselves will commit to. The two cases were the former minister of defense, von der Leiten, and the current minister of transport, Scheuer. Both wiped their cellphone data although they knew that there are ongoing investigations. The investigations are called "Untersuchungsausschuss" - not sure how to correctly translate that. They are not criminal investigations, although they could to them, but basically a group of members of parliament investigate into affairs to find out if criminal misconduct happened or off processes need to be improved. In case of von der Leien, there were large amounts of money going to consultants, with some contracts not following the legal processes to give them out. In case of Scheuer, there is a completely bitched toll project, which is costing the taxpayer 500 millions, where there are clear sings of him if ignoring risks to be seen as a quick actor to help with an election, as well as giving information to one of the bidders for the contract. I don't trust politicians like that to only use the collected data for the given purpose and I don't trust them to stop the collection after the crisis is over. That's how, in my opinion, these topics are related.

aleksaxyz 7y ago

Please be specific? I looked up "Germany ministers wiped phone" and saw a story about how the overall Defense Ministry wiped a phone of someone related to military contracts. What does that have to do with COVID-19 and data collection?

xnyan 7y ago
I would assume they are referring to the to the widespread [1,2,3] use of data gathered from smartphones for getting epidemiological data. Every nation is doing it. I would say it's not a great comparison, bad actors wiping their phone is not the same as gathering of bulk data to address a pandemic. 1) https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615329/coronavirus-south-korea-smartphone-app-quarantine/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615329/coronavirus-south-... 2) https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/14/coronavirus-spy-apps-israel-joins-iran-and-china-tracking-citizens-smartphones-to-fight-covid-19/#5e444c31781b https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/03/14/coronavir... 3) https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200330/United-States-tracking-mobile-phones-to-map-spread-of-COVID-19.aspx https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200330/United-States-tra...
- jacobush 7y ago
  Sweden is not using smartphone or base station location data for tracking of Corona. https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/coronaviruset-och-digital-smittsparning/ https://www.datainspektionen.se/nyheter/coronaviruset-och-di...
turbinerneiter 7y ago
It's related to the COVID data gathering in a quite simple way: the government is telling the people gathering this data helps containing the disease and that they can be trusted to not abuse that data. This trust however is severely undermined by a lot of factors, like past abuses which came out due to Snowden, the continued push to collect data with claims of fighting terror or other crime - and, in my opinion, also extreme difference in transparency that politicians ask from citizens versus the transparency they themselves will commit to. The two cases were the former minister of defense, von der Leiten, and the current minister of transport, Scheuer. Both wiped their cellphone data although they knew that there are ongoing investigations. The investigations are called "Untersuchungsausschuss" - not sure how to correctly translate that. They are not criminal investigations, although they could to them, but basically a group of members of parliament investigate into affairs to find out if criminal misconduct happened or off processes need to be improved. In case of von der Leien, there were large amounts of money going to consultants, with some contracts not following the legal processes to give them out. In case of Scheuer, there is a completely bitched toll project, which is costing the taxpayer 500 millions, where there are clear sings of him if ignoring risks to be seen as a quick actor to help with an election, as well as giving information to one of the bidders for the contract. I don't trust politicians like that to only use the collected data for the given purpose and I don't trust them to stop the collection after the crisis is over. That's how, in my opinion, these topics are related.