The Explainer fake news police on routine patrol of online space has apprehended a suspicious content in which claims were made that COVID-19 trackers have been remotely added to Android and iphone devices. According to the message on this doubtful graphic circulating mainly on Whatsapp, the moves to remotely embed COVID-19 trackers in all android and iphone devices have been causing disruptions in the functionality of the devices. The message read: “Please share! When everyone was having phone disruptions earlier this week, they were adding COVID-19 trackers to our cell phones. If you have an Android phone go under your settings, then google settings and it is there. If you have an iphone, go to settings, privacy, then health. Here is a screen shot for Android and a screen recording for iphone.”
Upon the apprehension of this unverified content, our fake news police embarked on a mission to fact check the claims. Firstly, The Explainer found that an interface for COVID-19 exposure notifications have been added to Google settings on Android and iphone. This is not a tracker as being claimed in the disreputable content circulating online. This interface allows for the phone user to install what is known as a “participating app.”
A participating app for COVID-19 notification would have to be provided by the Centre for Disease Control in the country. In Nigeria for instance, the participating app would have to be made available by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. The Explainer fact checkers visited the NCDC website on June 23, but found no such participating app. It is only after the installation, and turning on of the participating app that the COVID-19 notification becomes functional. In other words, phone users are at liberty not to download the app, which is in any case, not currently available in Nigeria.
On May 20, Apple and Google issued a joint statement on their joint roles to support contact tracing by public health officials, using technology. The statement read: “One of the most effective techniques that public health officials have used during outbreaks is called contact tracing. Through this approach, public health officials contact, test, treat and advise people who may have been exposed to an affected person.”
The two tech giants noted that one new element of contact tracing is Exposure Notifications: using privacy-preserving digital technology to tell someone they may have been exposed to the virus. “Exposure Notification has the specific goal of rapid notification, which is especially important to slowing the spread of the disease with a virus that can be spread asymptomatically. To help, Apple and Google cooperated to build Exposure Notifications technology that will enable apps created by public health agencies to work more accurately, reliably and effectively across both Android phones and iPhones.”
Apple and Google went on to announce that its Exposure Notifications technology is available to public health agencies on both iOS and Android.
“What we’ve built is not an app—rather public health agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install. Our technology is designed to make these apps work better. Each user gets to decide whether or not to opt-in to Exposure Notifications; the system does not collect or use location from the device; and if a person is diagnosed with COVID-19, it is up to them whether or not to report that in the public health app.”
As would be seen from the fact check and the explanations, contrary to the claims circulating that COVID-19 trackers have been installed on phones, the fact is that it is the phone user who is at liberty to download a participating app in order to activate theCOVID-19 exposure notification, if he or she so wishes. In the end, the claim in the content about installation of COVID-19 trackers on phones amounts to misinformation, with possible intention to create panic. The Explainer calls on social media users to beware of fake news; critically examine claims in content circulating on social media before believing or sharing.
This fact-check is produced through support from the Resource Centre for Human Rights&Civic Education and Misereor KZE of Germany.
