Google Contact Tracing App Forces Users to Turn On Location Settings

When Google and Apple have announced that they had been developing contact tracing app in which users’ privacy and security will be central to the design, government across the world used the code to develop contact tracing apps and they have been downloaded more than 20 million times. They have said that they will ban the use of the location tracking in the apps and they will focus on the use of the Bluetooth technology.

It seems that in order for those apps to work on Android (75% of all smartphones use Android), users must first turn on the device location settings.
 
Governments pressed Google to get clarifications, and Google responded that they do not use the device location, but that the location settings must be on, so that their devices could scan for other Bluetooth devices. 
 
In addition to that,Google may determine the location by using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mobile network signals through a setting called Google Location Accuracy and use the data to improve location services. 
 
Experts are saying that the data is kept on the phone and unavailable to external parties (which doesn’t include OS).
 
Germany’s Ministry of Health said that if Google is using location data for other purposes it would need a legal basis. 

The news published by The New York times is available here.

Photo by Henry Perks on Unsplash.