Big tech continues to be the giant arm of totalitarian government:
So for a small group of apps, they will have a special "Exposure Notifications" privilege that allows for a feature called "locationless scanning" meant ONLY for COVID purposes, or so they say.
Only your state "public health" governments have access to this feature. Yeah, whatever. I learned about these Exposure Notifications when T-Mobile stuffed the Android 11 update down my throat despite my continued resistance to updating from 10, which I was already happy with.
With the app, the app uses Bluetooth to "scan nearby" for other people with the app. The only problem is - even though this "scan nearby" tech has existed for years, you chose to opt into the tech at your discretion. This COVID program, however, while it's opt-in for now, you know governments will NOT hesitate to force you to enter this program if infection rates ever go up.
This "pick up data and swap with others" feature is something a few programs and even some games out there use (DS/3DS games I think did this before). The only thing is, you didn't mind that because game consoles had very limited info on you and at worst they'd mess with your game.
Considering how much stuff that's stored on our phones, and considering how Google is far more evil than boomer companies like Nintendo, this is something we should all be worried about. This just makes government more powerful and Big Tech is following it along for the ride.
I just patently refuse to accept that my phone is actually "offline" like it says it is on the screen. I was in airplane mode during this past winter storm that knocked out my power for a few days, and I still got an alert for a phone game I have (it's the only one on there, I promise). IN AIRPLANE MODE. When I had no power to my house at all, definitely no wifi, and unless I don't understand what airplane mode actually does, it's supposed to disable in/out communication so I don't understand how my phone received a message in the first place.
What stops someone with backdoor access to my phone's OS from just having this thing running in the background all the time, anyway? The screen says bluetooth is off, but I can't see or hear the signal, so how do I actually know? I'm gonna have to faraday cage the thing like a misbehaving dog all the time.