Amnesty International warned Tuesday that contact-tracing technology developed to contain the novel coronavirus threatens users' privacy, highlighting Bahraini, Kuwaiti and Norwegian apps as "among the most dangerous".
Many countries have turned to smartphones to trace people's movements and track their contacts, allowing officials to monitor coronavirus infections and spot new outbreaks.
But detailed technical analysis of 11 such apps around the world showed that Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway's offerings were "carrying out live or near-live tracking of users' locations", the rights group said.
Bahraini and Kuwaiti officials told AFP Tuesday that the apps were for the "sole" purpose of combatting the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
"The 'BeAware' app was designed for the sole purpose of advancing contact tracing efforts and saving lives," said a Bahraini government spokesperson, adding that more than 402,000 people in the country had downloaded it.
"It is an entirely voluntary opt-in app... and all users are informed of its use of GPS software before downloading."
A Kuwaiti official also said the country's app was "solely linked to the novel coronavirus" and was "established to track people who break a mandatory 28-day self-quarantine".
But Amnesty reported that the tools were frequently uploading GPS coordinates to central servers, meaning users' whereabouts could be tracked in real time.
Less invasive apps use Bluetooth proximity scanning to detect encounters with infected users.
"Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway have run roughshod over people's privacy, with highly invasive surveillance tools which go far beyond what is justified in efforts to tackle COVID-19," said Claudio Guarnieri, head of Amnesty International's security lab.
Authorities in Norway said Monday they would suspend the "Smittestopp" (Infection stop) ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
