COVID-19 could affect more races this year.

[PlatinumZealot]

South Korea has some of the best results with respect to containing the outbreak. This in spite of being much "closer" to the epicenter of the outbreak geographically and economically, and having not had to resort to lockdowns.

My hope is for the future is that if the WHO declares a pandemic that western governments will be able to implement some of the procedures that South Korea implemented. Tracking apps and surveillance review to get as many possible infected off the streets. Its incredible that we have the technology to do this but are held up on the politics. South Korea should be the example of how to handle future pandemics.

That is just my rant. I did come across this article at work and thought I would pass it along. Its long and out of date (26 March 2020) but has some great information.
https://icsb.org/wp-content/uploads/202 ... -1.pdf.pdf

Westerners love their privacy. Are we willing to accept a tracking app for a few months?

[subcritical71]

Westerners love their privacy. Are we willing to accept a tracking app for a few months?

Quite frankly google has a better handle on my habits than I do... we’ve already given up that privacy, people just don’t realize it yet. I tried to cut out google, there are guides to do it, but the convenience of their products make it impossible (for me).

[Just_a_fan]

Westerners love their privacy. Are we willing to accept a tracking app for a few months?

If they use a mobile phone and/or social media, they're already being tracked. The funny thing is that people wouldn't trust their own Government to track them "safely" but they're happy for foreign companies to do so and then sell the information about them to all and sundry.

[e30ernest]

Westerners love their privacy. Are we willing to accept a tracking app for a few months?

If they use a mobile phone and/or social media, they're already being tracked. The funny thing is that people wouldn't trust their own Government to track them "safely" but they're happy for foreign companies to do so and then sell the information about them to all and sundry.

I have mixed feelings when it comes tracking by private companies (like Google) vs tracking by governments. IMO it is in the best interests of legit companies like Google to take care of your data because they know that if they break that trust, then their whole ad business model collapses. And as subcritical71 mentioned, the data you give them gives back a better service to the end-user, so in a way it's a win-win. Personally, I prefer to be shown ads I'm actually interested in rather than ads that are randomly picked.

Now for the government side, what's stopping them from going off-the-rails with tracking like in more authoritarian states? Also, a lot of governments have poor data security especially at the local level.

Back to the topic, I hope they don't delay the new regs out for longer. If they do, are they allowed to develop the current cars as they would normally do during the season? A positive for that would be the teams might get closer together as their designs get refined and they hit diminishing gains at the top.

[Just_a_fan]

I have mixed feelings when it comes tracking by private companies (like Google) vs tracking by governments. IMO it is in the best interests of legit companies like Google to take care of your data because they know that if they break that trust, then their whole ad business model collapses. And as subcritical71 mentioned, the data you give them gives back a better service to the end-user, so in a way it's a win-win. Personally, I prefer to be shown ads I'm actually interested in rather than ads that are randomly picked.

Now for the government side, what's stopping them from going off-the-rails with tracking like in more authoritarian states? Also, a lot of governments have poor data security especially at the local level.

The issue with the private companies is that they are generally foreign companies with servers sat in foreign countries. Anyone who thinks that, for example, the US Govt is happy for all that data to sit there untouched just hasn't been following the news for the last 50 years...and as for data held in other countries? Who knows what they're doing with it?

[nzjrs]

Westerners love their privacy. Are we willing to accept a tracking app for a few months?

In theory anyway - the entertaining thing is that since the GDPR regulations came online we have trained a generation to blindly click 'Agree All' to whatever privacy popup a website puts in front of them.

[e30ernest]

I have mixed feelings when it comes tracking by private companies (like Google) vs tracking by governments. IMO it is in the best interests of legit companies like Google to take care of your data because they know that if they break that trust, then their whole ad business model collapses. And as subcritical71 mentioned, the data you give them gives back a better service to the end-user, so in a way it's a win-win. Personally, I prefer to be shown ads I'm actually interested in rather than ads that are randomly picked.

Now for the government side, what's stopping them from going off-the-rails with tracking like in more authoritarian states? Also, a lot of governments have poor data security especially at the local level.

The issue with the private companies is that they are generally foreign companies with servers sat in foreign countries. Anyone who thinks that, for example, the US Govt is happy for all that data to sit there untouched just hasn't been following the news for the last 50 years...and as for data held in other countries? Who knows what they're doing with it?

I think they move the data outside the USA because you are right, the USA has a law that allows them to snoop into that data and they are happy to use that privilege. How many times has the US government gone into conflict with Apple's encryption for example? And Whatsapp too. A lot of governments would want to get access to the data these companies keep (location and browsing histories for example).

[henry]

Google just moved, APRIL 1, data on its U.K. customers from the EU to the US. I guess that’s because the U.K. is no longer part of the EU and so isn’t subject to its rules and protections. The idea that customers would desert Google and it’s services if they were to infringe civil liberties is to my mind fanciful. Blind eyes are plentiful when convenience is challenged.

I would think it quite feasible to have an app Alert someone that they have been close to an infected person/location in some time period, say 24 hours and advise that they seek testing. Not as effective as instant alerting but better than no contact tracing.

[Just_a_fan]

I think they move the data outside the USA because you are right, the USA has a law that allows them to snoop into that data and they are happy to use that privilege.

From my two trips to the US, I like the people. All we met seemed pleasant, polite, etc., That was a two week trip to the east coast just after 9/11 and a road trip over in the west 4 or 5 years ago. No complaints about the people in those two trips.

Political comment removed.

[nzjrs]

A story in two parts;

I think they move the data outside the USA because you are right, the USA has a law that allows them to snoop into that data and they are happy to use that privilege.

Google just moved, APRIL 1, data on its U.K. customers from the EU to the US. I guess that’s because the U.K. is no longer part of the EU and so isn’t subject to its rules and protections.

A cautionary tale: from apple/google/microsoft/facebook/amazon's perspective, the only thing worse than the USA being able to snoop on *their* data (about you) is you not giving it all to them for free (GDPR).

When the dust settles one knows where companies stand.

[e30ernest]

I think they move the data outside the USA because you are right, the USA has a law that allows them to snoop into that data and they are happy to use that privilege.

From my two trips to the US, I like the people. All we met seemed pleasant, polite, etc., That was a two week trip to the east coast just after 9/11 and a road trip over in the west 4 or 5 years ago. No complaints about the people in those two trips.

Yeah I love it there. The places, the people....

Part of me being really salty about the whole Covid-19 mess was that we had a trip planned to the USA and we were supposed to head there 4 days ago.... Me and my wife are turning 40 and our firstborn is turning 7, so we decided to splurge on a 5-week holiday to the USA starting with Roseville then Los Angeles, Dallas and back to San Francisco/Roseville/Sacramento. The kids were really looking forward to that trip as well. Our flights got cancelled as far back as February when our government banned all flights to China/Hong Kong/Macau (our flight was connecting through Hong Kong) because of Covid-19.

But I'm digressing way off topic.

[henry]

A story in two parts;

I think they move the data outside the USA because you are right, the USA has a law that allows them to snoop into that data and they are happy to use that privilege.

Google just moved, APRIL 1, data on its U.K. customers from the EU to the US. I guess that’s because the U.K. is no longer part of the EU and so isn’t subject to its rules and protections.

A cautionary tale: from apple/google/microsoft/facebook/amazon's perspective, the only thing worse than the USA being able to snoop on *their* data (about you) is you not giving it all to them for free (GDPR).

When the dust settles one knows where companies stand.

And here’s the sort of thing they can do. https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/. The scale of this is amazing. They have this data for 131 countries. In the future countries will be able to ask Google to what extent lockdown restrictions are being enforced, lifted anywhere they think might be a “competitor”.

Until I turned it off my sister’s Android phone reported every shop, restaurant etc she visited. And here’s what can be done with that sort of info. I tend to turn most things off but some website GPDRS consent implementations make it such a pain I get lazy.

[Just_a_fan]

Part of me being really salty about the whole Covid-19 mess was that we had a trip planned to the USA and we were supposed to head there 4 days ago....

We were due to go to Georgia (country, not US state) for a week a couple of weeks ago. The airline cancelled the flight a week before we were due to fly. Ah well, stay well and then go on your trip when we can all get back to normal.

[e30ernest]

Part of me being really salty about the whole Covid-19 mess was that we had a trip planned to the USA and we were supposed to head there 4 days ago....

We were due to go to Georgia (country, not US state) for a week a couple of weeks ago. The airline cancelled the flight a week before we were due to fly. Ah well, stay well and then go on your trip when we can all get back to normal.

Yeah. Hopefully my wife doesn't catch it from her patients. She's taking a lot of care though. Unfortunately, she couldn't really quarantine herself from us.

[Just_a_fan]

Part of me being really salty about the whole Covid-19 mess was that we had a trip planned to the USA and we were supposed to head there 4 days ago....

We were due to go to Georgia (country, not US state) for a week a couple of weeks ago. The airline cancelled the flight a week before we were due to fly. Ah well, stay well and then go on your trip when we can all get back to normal.

Yeah. Hopefully my wife doesn't catch it from her patients. She's taking a lot of care though. Unfortunately, she couldn't really quarantine herself from us.

Fingers crossed for her and the rest of you! [-o<