6 ms·

Part of the rationale for the ban was that not enough people were using it?

by ISL 6y ago

zdragnar 6y ago
I haven't read the article yet but if true it logically makes a bit of sense- contact tracing apps need a certain critical mass to be effective. Without enough people in a geographic area using it, you are left with a false sense of security, and may inadvertently take riskier behaviors. Of course, it might still be helpful to let you affirmatively knoe you have been exposed, as opposed to trusting that you have not, but that might be asking a lot out of society.
- dzhiurgis 6y ago
  That's where Google and Apple dropped the ball by not making tracing built into OS itself. Making it optional made it pointless. We've developed actual vaccine than a dinky student grade app. Despicable.
  - toast0 6y ago
    If Google built it into the OS, it might have enough installed users to use it in what 2025?
  - asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
    This is because they rightly recognized the backlash they would face if they did build it into the OS. Even if everything proceeded nominally from there, it would have been bad press and privacy complaints for many news cycles. And that's if there were no fuckups and the app worked well. If the public had any appetite for that kind of intervention, I'm sure those companies would have been happy to do it. And for what upside? It's not like you're going to earn additional customers by having the better contact tracing framework. Two ways this could have happened: western citizens could have demanded it loudly and with general concurrence, or western governments could have banded together and ordered it done. Failing those two, it wasn't going to happen. (China, Taiwan and Korea chose the latter route.)
    - dzhiurgis 6y ago
      Sometimes it’s ok absorb some backlash in the sake of humanity (or environment fwiw). Instead they are recording record profits specifically because of pandemic.
      - asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
        It's fine to wish for people to selflessly take on negative sentiment for the betterment of all. It's another thing to expect it. If we want certain behaviors, it's better to build systems that reward them rather than dreaming of a counterfactual that will never exist.

Part of the rationale for the ban was that not enough people were using it?

by ISL 6y ago

Part of the rationale for the ban was that not enough people were using it?

I haven't read the article yet but if true it logically makes a bit of sense- contact tracing apps need a certain critical mass to be effective. Without enough people in a geographic area using it, you are left with a false sense of security, and may inadvertently take riskier behaviors. Of course, it might still be helpful to let you affirmatively knoe you have been exposed, as opposed to trusting that you have not, but that might be asking a lot out of society.

dzhiurgis 6y ago
That's where Google and Apple dropped the ball by not making tracing built into OS itself. Making it optional made it pointless. We've developed actual vaccine than a dinky student grade app. Despicable.
- toast0 6y ago
  If Google built it into the OS, it might have enough installed users to use it in what 2025?
- asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
  This is because they rightly recognized the backlash they would face if they did build it into the OS. Even if everything proceeded nominally from there, it would have been bad press and privacy complaints for many news cycles. And that's if there were no fuckups and the app worked well. If the public had any appetite for that kind of intervention, I'm sure those companies would have been happy to do it. And for what upside? It's not like you're going to earn additional customers by having the better contact tracing framework. Two ways this could have happened: western citizens could have demanded it loudly and with general concurrence, or western governments could have banded together and ordered it done. Failing those two, it wasn't going to happen. (China, Taiwan and Korea chose the latter route.)
  - dzhiurgis 6y ago
    Sometimes it’s ok absorb some backlash in the sake of humanity (or environment fwiw). Instead they are recording record profits specifically because of pandemic.
    - asdfasgasdgasdg 6y ago
      It's fine to wish for people to selflessly take on negative sentiment for the betterment of all. It's another thing to expect it. If we want certain behaviors, it's better to build systems that reward them rather than dreaming of a counterfactual that will never exist.