Thread by @PaulbernalUK

I see a lot of people saying ‘Apple and Google have secretly installed track and trace on your phones!’.

That’s not true. They’ve installed the system update that *allows* track and trace apps using the Google/Apple system to work.

/short thread

For the tracking to take place, you would still need to:
(a) Install an app
(b) Enable Bluetooth and
(c) activate the app for any tracking to work.

You don’t need to do any of that. /2

Even then, this is only with an app that uses the Apple/Google decentralised system, which keeps the data on your phone rather than sucking it up into a central database. /3

There are still *big* issues about these systems, and scant evidence that they actually work in any effective ways - don’t let people tell you ‘but they work well in South Korea/Singapore/Australia’. There’s very little evidence of that at all. /4

...and I, personally, won’t be using any of them until we have a lot more evidence about their functionality, but there’s no need to be paranoid about them yet. And I say that as a signed up member of the tinfoil-hat brigade. /ends

P.S. You don’t need to have automatic updating of your OS anyway. Personally, I do it manually and check each update before deciding whether to install....

P.P.S. This is hardly secret either: Apple and Google announced the plans very publically on April 10th. It’s been discussed at length (ad nauseam) in the months since. I know, I know, only geeks and nerds pay attention to that kind of technical stuff....