Re:Singapore to Open Source Bluetooth Contact Tracing
by GordonS on Friday March 27, 2020 @07:27PM
(#22707821)
> Johns Hopkins University, in particular their map here
OK, we're fully agreed that covid-19 is extremely serious, my disagreement is your belief that biological warfare is readily available to small groups or individuals.
Re:Singapore to Open Source Bluetooth Contact Tracing
by Reelin on Friday March 27, 2020 @07:37PM
(#22707881)
> my disagreement is your belief that biological warfare is readily available to small groups or individuals
As a counterexample, have you considered that much of the cutting edge biological research takes place in academic labs? The vast majority of those would fit the definition of a small group, and many of the projects they undertake are conducted by only one or two individuals. The level of expertise required and difficulty of learning the material are the main barriers to entry for outsiders.
Johns Hopkins University, in particular their map here:
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.h...
> I guess this was in relation to small groups or individuals, not governments.
Yup, I meant primarily small groups. Coarse-level bioweapons have bad payoff for governments - they're as likely to harm the attacker as the target. A targeted weapon, hurting only a specific group of people, would be more useful for a government, but it's still risky business - pathogens tend to mutate rather fast. I'm more worried about the crazy people that have a grudge and/or a point to make, and no regard for their own safety.
> Where I think we differ is the means to that end.
It's really, really hard to do contact tracing without some form of surveillance / keeping track of people's whereabouts. Systems that could streamline existing data collection end up giving similar data to what this app would.