Don’t install them!
You can track your movements elsewhere.
Cellphone applications created so that users can self-report symptoms of COVID-19 — or even track nearby outbreaks using official data from the Johns Hopkins team researching the coronavirus pandemic — may be putting Americans at risk of being hacked according to a new report from Politico.
Coronavirus tracking apps released back in the early days of the pandemic were fraught with issues, infecting American cell phones with malware and other tracking software “retooled” to submit surveillance data to foreign hackers, CNET reported back in March.
A “coronavirus live” app, which claimed to provide users with up-to-the-minute data based on the Johns Hopkins numbers, was “actually tracking them: getting access to the device’s photos, videos, location, and camera. The camera access would allow the attackers to take photos and record videos and audio,” per CNET.
The latest wave of COVID-19 tracking apps, many of which invite users to submit health data and symptom information, were supposed to have been an improvement on those earlier applications, but Politico says the apps are sending sensitive personal information to nefarious characters.
“In the Qatar Covid-19 app,” the outlet reported Monday, “researchers found a vulnerability that would’ve let hackers obtain more than a million people’s national ID numbers and health status. In India’s app, a researcher discovered a security gap that allowed him to determine who was sick in individual homes. And researchers uncovered seven security flaws in a pilot app in the U.K.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-coronavirus-tracking-apps-a-honeypot-for-hackers