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Apple and Google's contact tracing apps, a threat to the US election?

2020-08-31T16:54:26.083Z


The solution developed by the two giants is blacklisted in an independent report. It could be used to generate false alerts.


Is Apple and Google's contact tracing solution a threat to democracy?

Developed as part of the fight against Covid-19, it is strongly criticized in a new independent report, unveiled by the American magazine Forbes.

The authors of this report, Rosaria Gennaro, New York scholar, Adam Krellenstein, start-up creator and activist James Krellenstein, stress one of the weaknesses of this protocol, already highlighted by the technical director of the antitrust American.

The protocol, which is not the one used in France by StopCovid, is used as a basis for around thirty tracing applications.

The latter are intended to warn people who have been in contact with a carrier of Covid-19.

However, these applications could be diverted to hinder the proper conduct of the American elections.

The mechanism is quite simple.

A Covid patient declares himself in the application via an authentication code, issued by a local health authority.

But this code could be fraudulently recovered and used several times, due to the decentralized nature of the Apple and Google protocol.

Citizens would receive alerts that they have been in contact with a sick person, when this is not true.

This could create a feeling of panic among the population, who would abstain from going to vote, believing themselves to be potentially contaminated.

What threatens the good conduct of the elections this fall.

A danger to society

"

The notification system developed by Apple and Google respects the privacy of users, but poses security dangers, not for individuals but for society as a whole

", underlines the report co-authored by Rosario Gennaro, Adam Krellenstein, James Krellenstein.

The protocol developed by the two Americans, known as DP-3T (Decentralized Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing), is “decentralized”.

To date, around twenty countries use it, as well as sixteen American states.

France has chosen an architecture for its so-called “centralized” StopCovid application.

However, the detractors of StopCovid would have preferred a decentralized application, considering it more respectful of private life and less risky for democracy.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-08-31

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