Saw this, checked and it's there

[Allinadaystwerk]

Not sure how I feel about having this download on my phone without my permission. How about you?

I very rarely even open Facebook but I looked to see what the new 'feature' might be & saw this in the lovely new menu design.

It appears to just be news about Covid, although I haven't looked in any detail. But why update (without permission) without informing the phone owner/Facebook user about what the update is for?

@acatcalledjohn
Nice

@acatcalledjohn
You also failed to quote or @ properly which makes you look daft as well as catty 🤣

It's not on my android phone but it is on my daughters iPhone... my understanding is it's a track and trace app and it's optional.

You can switch it on or not.

Sarky, not catty.

Also, I'd like to point out the lack of '@' in the MN quoting function is not my daft error, it's how the MN techies have designed it.

@BlackWhitePurple

Do people realise that Apple/Google do this kind of thing with every update? That's what updates are, they update your phone's capabilities.

If they wanted to track you secretly, they wouldn't be adding a setting that you can turn off. They'd just not mention it. The fact that you can see this setting, right there, on your screen suggests that it's not all that secret or mysterious.

I always check to see what the reason for an update is, when one becomes available. None of my software updates, not that I've needed one very recently, have explained that a feature to facilitate the use of Covid track & trace apps was included in the update. So, no, they didn't mention it.

The fact that everyone on this thread had to be directed to where they could see this on their phones means that without that direction most people would, presumably, have been totally unaware. Maybe not 'secret' but sneaky, & slightly 'mysterious'.

I get that it requires other actions to even make use of it, I understand that, what I don't understand is why it's happened without informing people. No information regarding this being put onto software, no notification, no announcement, nothing. Why?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210393#135

This took mere seconds to find for iOS 13.5. It absolutely was out in the open.

What FB do is up to FB developers, not Apple/Google.

I always check to see what the reason for an update is, when one becomes available. None of my software updates, not that I've needed one very recently, have explained that a feature to facilitate the use of Covid track & trace apps was included in the update. So, no, they didn't mention it

You must have android.

A poster linked a screen shot of the Apple notification earlier in the thread. The most recent Apple iOS updates were 20 May and one day last week.

Article on the iOS 13.5 update - including explaining the Covid bits from 19 May

www.techradar.com/uk/news/ios-13-release-date-features-and-everything-you-need-to-know

BBC article, also from May, explaining this functionality is coming to both Apple and Google phones. Also from May, and the way it's written shows API already in place

www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52807635

Apparantly it's not the app, it's the software needed to run the app 🤔 x

@Crazybaglady72 - Apparantly it's not the app, it's the software needed to run the app 🤔 x

Really?

No more people, I can’t cope. “Literally” splitting my sides laughing at the posters coming on the thread on PAGE 24 to tell us that yes, it is on their phone and did we know it is not actually an app?

Jesus! Is this still going on and on?

It’s not an app. It doesn’t do anything on its own 🙄

Thank you @Bluewarbler27

Nobody else realised that in tkd past 24 pages.

The, not tkd. No idea what tkd spells. Maybe the covid app messed up my typing.

@Snozzlemaid - Jesus! Is this still going on and on?

The tinfoil hattery seems to have stopped though. Not as much fun

The android update was notified through Google Play. Here's an article from The Sun back in April about it. Surely that's mainstream enough?
www.thesun.co.uk/tech/11392403/google-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-apple-android-version-update-download/

@MRex - The Sun? Anything in a full size newspaper?

Yeah, I was trying to work out what the audience-that-didn't-read-the-thread usually reads, but somehow missed for unspecified reasons.
Here's the Guardian on the May release date, mumsnet likes The Guardian right: www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/20/apple-google-phone-app-trace-coronavirus

@OchonAgusOchonO

Sometimes you just reply without realising there are 20 odd pages saying the same thing. In future I will definitely have a read before posting so I don’t give people like you the satisfaction of being able to be so fucking patronising.

@Bluewarbler27 - In future I will definitely have a read before posting

Good plan.

mumsnet likes The Guardian right:

I think so.

@JuneJuly "I get that it requires other actions to even make use of it, I understand that, what I don't understand is why it's happened without informing people. No information regarding this being put onto software, no notification, no announcement, nothing. Why?"

Because it does nothing and means nothing. It's a preparatory firmware update. If you never download the track and trace app once it's available, this feature will not matter to you one jot. Similar to if, say, you checked your phone and realised they'd added some firmware to make your phone compatible with your car's Bluetooth, or with a new smart watch. You would have to buy the watch for that feature to ever become relevant.

If the API for the track and trace does absolutely nothing on its own, then why do you believe you should have been made more aware of it coming along? It literally doesn't affect you or the way you use your device. It's redundant.

And then of course there's the fact everybody was notified. It just wasn't put out as front page news because, as previously mentioned, it does nothing and causes absolutely no breach of your privacy.

@JuneJuly here's Google's announcement from 10 April that this is coming: www.blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/apple-and-google-partner-covid-19-contact-tracing-technology/

Is it realistic that most people would have read the announcement (or the apple one, or the tweets by both companies), no. But it wasn't hidden, it just wasn't shouted about by the media. Because anyone who is likely to have read it would understand that, as @WhatCFeryIsThis says, it's like adding the capability for your phone to sync with a smartwatch, and won't have realised it would become a story like this. Similarly, not everyone on this thread had to be directed where to find it - those who don't understand what it is had to be.

To reiterate a point I made earlier - it is perfectly reasonable to have privacy concerns about your smartphone, its naive to not have up until now, and if someone has privacy concerns I'm afraid it's their responsibility to learn about their phone or stop using it!

Personally, the thing I take away from this is: WOW. This is a GOOD THING. Two of the world's biggest competitors, who normally strive to be incompatible, have worked together to ensure comparability of something which could have huge benefits for society.