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Contact Tracing For Profit
Privacy violations abound as Google and Apple open app stores to contact tracing. One contact tracing app served targeted ads based on browsing history, despite ad-supported contact tracing apps being against both companies’ policies. The lack of standards around these apps and the information they can collect and share makes it hard to regulate the new category. These apps handle and process sensitive healthcare information and potentially user info and location data for advertising, according to a study of 100 apps by The Wall Street Journal and the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC). Some apps have no privacy policy and include code that connects them to social media. “Undermining public trust by failing to live up to best practices could hamper pandemic response,” said Quentin Palfrey, president of the IDAC.