Can government contact trace you without your knowledge?
Through this new update will government or politicians be able to contact trace us without our permission every time?
Dumb cell phones don’t have location services. But they are still tracked continuously. The mobile carriers have to know where your phone is all the time or they wouldn’t be able to make your phone ring when you get a call. That location information is needed to implement 911 services, and by law is saved for at least 18 months, and is used by law enforcement and emergency services to locate you. The carriers find you by triangulating based on the cell towers that receive the “I’m Here” signals that are sent by your phone every few minutes.
The COVID tracing service by design cannot be used to identify you; it was an important requirement that Apple and Google imposed on the service when they designed it. And it is off by default; you must turn it on if you want to be notified if you have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID. But it won’t tell you who or where you were at the time, only that you might have been within 30 feet of someone for at least 15 minutes in the past 24 hours.