Massachusetts Secretly Installed COVID Spyware App on Smart Phones: Lawsuit - The Maine Wire

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The Massachusetts Health Department secretly installed surveillance bundle connected New Englanders’ astute phones without their consent, a suit filed Monday successful U.S. District Court of Massachusetts alleges.

The suit alleges that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts worked with Google to make a interaction tracing exertion for residents smartphones adjacent the extremity of the COVID-19 epidemic.

But erstwhile fewer residents voluntarily downloaded the app, Massachusetts’ caused the surveillance app to beryllium downloaded connected the astute phones of Mass. residents — and adjacent New Hampshire residents who worked successful the authorities — without users support oregon knowledge.

“To summation adoption, starting connected June 15, 2021, DPH worked with Google to secretly instal the Contact Tracing App onto implicit 1 cardinal Android mobile devices located successful Massachusetts without the instrumentality owners’ cognition oregon permission,” the suit states.

“When immoderate Android instrumentality owners discovered and subsequently deleted the App, DPH would re-install it connected to their devices. The App causes an Android mobile instrumentality to perpetually link and speech accusation with different adjacent devices via Bluetooth and creates a grounds of specified different connections.”

“If a idiosyncratic opts successful and reports being infected with COVID-19, an vulnerability notification is sent to different individuals connected the infected user’s transportation record,” the suit states.”

Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker’s communications squad did not respond to an email and a telephone telephone seeking remark connected whether the politician knew astir — oregon authorized — the covert installation of the app connected people’s phones.

The Mass. Department of Public Health did not respond to aggregate emails and a petition for remark connected wherever the accusation was stored and who authorized the permissionless installation.

Several different states utilized akin interaction tracing applications; however, Mass. was the lone authorities that surreptitiously installed and re-installed the app connected users phones.

Users affected by the clandestine app had accusation astir their travel, societal interactions, and net enactment collected and delivered to authorities authorities. The app took measures to conceal itself connected users phones, surviving wrong the “settings” diagnostic alternatively than the “applications” file. If users discovered the exertion and deleted it, the app would re-install connected their phones without their permission.

According to the lawsuit, determination is nary instrumentality successful Massachusetts that allows authorities authorities to instal spy bundle connected residents phones without users consent.

Thousands of idiosyncratic reviews for the exertion amusement users crossed the authorities complaining astir the app installing itself connected their phones.

The suit alleges that DPH began installing the spyware connected the phones of individuals who lived successful Mass. oregon traveled done the authorities connected oregon astir June 15, 2021. This is accomplished by accessing the geolocation information connected astute phones.

“Massachusetts DPH developed the app utilizing API provided by Google, and Google
has explicitly stated that its employees ‘have been moving with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’ to guarantee the App would beryllium ‘automatically distributed’ onto ‘Android devices’,” the suit states.

“These ‘clear indices of Government’s encouragement, endorsement, and participation’
demonstrates that Google acted arsenic an instrumentality of DPH erstwhile it installed DPH’s Contact
Tracing App onto millions of Android devices without their owners’ support oregon awareness,” it states.

The suit alleges that DPH’s actions represent a bid of crimes that caused harm to an full people of plaintiffs. The lawyers filing the suit allege that the Mass. DPH violated the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Article XIV of the Mass. Declaration of Rights, the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Article X of the Mass. Declaration of Rights, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

They are seeking an injunction against the continued installation of the spyware and an bid requiring DPH to enactment to Google to facilitate the removal of the spyware from users devices. The suit seeks to person attorneys fees covered, but asks for symbolic damages of $1.

The attorneys filing the suit are Thomas H. Curran and Peter Antonelli of Curran & Antonelli, LLP, and Sheng Li and Margaret A. Little of the New Civil Liberties Alliance successful Washington, D.C.

This communicative volition beryllium updated if spokespeople from Gov. Baker’s bureau oregon the Mass. Department of Public Health respond.