Mass. Sued For Working With Google To Secretly Put Spyware On Residents’ Phones

[Kamaji]

Massachusetts Sued For Working With Google To Secretly Put Spyware On Residents’ Phones

BY: SHAWN FLEETWOOD
JULY 10, 2023

A newly released video highlights how the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) allegedly colluded with Google to secretly install Covid-tracking spyware on the smartphones of more than one million residents “without their knowledge or consent.”

A video published by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) — a self-described civil rights group devoted to protecting Americans from administrative overreach — walks viewers through the core tenets of the organization’s ongoing lawsuit against DPH and Democrat Gov. Maura Healey, which claims Massachusetts violated state residents and workers’ Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights by installing a Covid “contact-tracing app” on their Androids without their awareness or permission.

According to NCLA’s legal complaint, DPH launched an initial version of the app for Android mobile devices in April 2021 using software provided to the agency by Google. At the time, the installation of the app — which purportedly causes the device “to constantly connect and exchange information with other nearby devices via Bluetooth” to alert individuals of possible exposure to Covid-19 — was voluntary. Following low download numbers among state residents, however, DPH allegedly began working with Google on June 15, 2021, to “secretly install the Contact Tracing App onto over one million Android mobile devices located in Massachusetts without the device owners’ knowledge or permission.”

User attempts to delete the app from his or her respective devices proved unsuccessful, as DPH would allegedly “re-install it onto their device.”

“They made it hard to find on your phone because it doesn’t show up on the home screen with every other app you have,” NCLA Litigation Counsel Sheng Li said. “You have thousands and thousands of people who don’t know this is on their phone.”

*  *  *

Source:  https://thefederalist.com/2023/07/10/massachusetts-sued-for-working-with-google-to-secretly-put-spyware-on-residents-phones/