Originally published at: Feds Setting Up Cell Phone Tracking Grid to Fight COVID-19 | Infostormer.com
The United States government is reportedly using the coronavirus situation to justify setting up a cell phone tracking grid.
The federal government is in talks with Facebook, Google and other tech companies about ways to use smartphone location data to tackle the coronavirus, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Washington is reportedly interested in using the data to better understand how the virus spreads and to see whether people are practicing social distancing.
A new task force made up of tech and other industry executives presented ideas for the use of the location data at a White House meeting Sunday, the Post reported. Presenters included officials from Harvard University and representatives from top tech groups and Silicon Valley firms.
The White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
An unnamed OSTP official told The Washington Post that they were “encouraged by American technology companies looking to leverage, aggregate, anonymized data to glean key insights for COVID-19 modeling efforts.”
The meeting came on the heels of a summit led by U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios last week with federal agencies and executives from tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon to hash out how Silicon Valley can help fight the spread of coronavirus.
“The White House’s top priority is ensuring the safety and health of the American people amid the COVID-19 outbreak,” Kratsios said in a statement following the meeting. “Cutting edge technology companies and major online platforms will play a critical role in this all-hands-on-deck effort.”
They are probably going to do this since Israel is already involved in a similar type of program.
In Israel they are tracing cell phone data to identify, track and quarantine people who have contracted the coronavirus; and to identify others who should be quarantined because their paths crossed.https://t.co/jcFRa2OeY8#CoronavirusOutbreak
— PostSecret (@postsecret) March 17, 2020
This is obviously a bunch of bullshit.
What freedoms do we have left in America?
They’re going to use this coronavirus situation to enhance the already intrusive technological spy grid.
We already know that the National Security Agency collects all this data and data mines it for nefarious unconstitutional purposes. That was all meant to be secret, but now they’re just openly announcing these types of programs and claiming that it is necessary to fight the coronavirus.
The saying “never let a crisis go to waste” is basically what we are seeing with this. It’s like what they did after the 9/11 attacks with the Patriot Act and other freedom-destroying laws.