The app was an inside job. It wasn't marketed. This was an app made for criminals, developed by the FBI and others. It wasn't put on an app store for non-targeted criminal users to use.

> Doesn't this imply willful lying of government to its citizens. What's the guarantee that they aren't doing the same with contact tracing apps or other necessary apps?

It should be the default to expect government to be lying to its citizens.

Yes, the government allows itself to lie. The CIA famously abused a polio vaccine campaign to spy on people, possibly killing many people indirectly.

The guarantee on contact tracing aps is your trust that Apple and Google made them government-proof as they promised.

I don't think you should be downvoted, but the polio campaign was lying to citizens of other countries, not domestically, which I think is the crucial distinction here.

Just a reminder, the internet is global. Many people on HN, aren't from the US. Many aren't even from 5-Eyes countries.

This distinction is a bit shit. If US wants to portay itself as leader of the free world, it needs to stop acting like a them and us set of rules.

Eh, how about the reasons for the Iraq war, or the nice brochures the AEC gave the people of Utah about the innocent fairy dust raining down on them from the atmospheric Nuclear Tests in Nevada ?