According to user reports, Massachusetts’ COVID-19 exposure notification app seems to have been automatically installed by Google on some Android phones.
The notification app, known as “MassNotify,” was launched on June 15th. The Verge noted that “Many Android users said that it was silently installed on their phones without any notifications,” with one user leaving a Google Play Store review: “Ghost installed on my phone without my consent. While I believe in what this app was meant to do, installing it without so much as a notification is extremely alarming.”
9To5Google first reported that the app was “automatically installed on Android phones without warning,” and that it was “unclear if this was an intentional decision or a bug, but exposure notifications did not also get enabled with the install.”
They then posted an update, having received a statement from Google which confirmed “the new ‘automatically distributed’ nature,” while stating that the “COVID-19 Exposure Notifications are enabled only if a user proactively turns it on.”
“We have been working with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to allow users to activate the Exposure Notifications System directly from their Android phone settings,” Google said in a statement. “This functionality is built into the device settings and is automatically distributed by the Google Play Store, so users don’t have to download a separate app. COVID-19 Exposure Notifications are enabled only if a user proactively turns it on. Users decide whether to enable this functionality and whether to share information through the system to help warn others of possible exposure.”
According to The Verge, “MassNotify uses Google and Apple’s Bluetooth-based system to let users who test positive for COVID-19 alert strangers whose phones have been nearby that they may have been exposed to the virus.”
The system was built “using the Exposure Notifications Express program, which allows states to sidestep the laborious process of building their own app,” The Verge continued. “Instead, their health departments can specify how and when someone should receive an alert about a possible exposure, and the companies generate the software.”
“Across the world, governments and health authorities are working together to find solutions to the COVID‑19 pandemic, to protect people and get society back up and running. Software developers are contributing by crafting technical tools to help combat the virus and save lives. In this spirit of collaboration, Google and Apple are announcing a joint effort to enable the use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy and security central to the design,” wrote Apple in a joint statement announcing the venture.
“All of us at Apple and Google believe there has never been a more important moment to work together to solve one of the world’s most pressing problems. Through close cooperation and collaboration with developers, governments, and public health providers, we hope to harness the power of technology to help countries around the world slow the spread of COVID‑19 and accelerate the return of everyday life,” the statement concluded.