https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/kochfunded_group_sues_us_state/

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36 comment bubble on white

Koch-funded group sues US state agency for installing 'spyware' on 1m
Android devices

36 comment bubble on white

Class-action lawsuit seeks $1 in nominal damages

icon Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Thu 17 Nov 2022 // 20:13 UTC
#
   
  

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health conspired with Google
to secretly install a COVID-19 tracing app onto more than 1 million
Android users' devices without their knowledge and without obtaining
warrants, according to a class-action lawsuit filed this week by the
New Civil Liberties Alliance.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance claims to be a "nonpartisan,
nonprofit civil rights group." Its biggest donors include right-wing
backers such as the Charles G. Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch
Institute. In September 2020, the group represented a Virginian
landlord who sued the Centers for Disease Control to allow him to
evict tenants during the pandemic.

The Massachusetts app, according to the legal complaint, gave the
public health department, Google, application developers, and others
access to the device owners' media access control addresses, wireless
network IP addresses, phone numbers, contacts and emails, thus making
these parties privy to the owners' personal information, location and
movement. If Android users discovered and deleted the COVID-19
tracer, the state's health agency would reinstall it on their
devices, the lawsuit alleges.

[front]

"In sum, DPH installed spyware that deliberately tracks and records
movement and personal contacts onto over a million mobile devices
without their owners' permission and awareness," the lawsuit claims [
PDF]. "On knowledge and belief, that spyware still exists on the
overwhelming majority of the devices on which it was installed."

[front]
[front]

At least two dozen other states also developed COVID-19 apps using
Google APIs, but they used community outreach to encourage residents
to voluntarily download the apps and opt-in for contact tracing, the
court documents say. 

Massachusetts, they allege "is the only state to surreptitiously
embed the Contact Tracing App on mobile devices that DPH locates
within its borders, without obtaining the owners' knowledge or
consent."  

[front]

This violates Android device owners' federal privacy and unreasonable
search protections as well as the state's computer crime laws,
according to the lawsuit, which also names the Massachusetts
Department of Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke as a
defendant.

"The Massachusetts DPH, like any other government actor, is bound by
state and federal constitutional and legal constraints on its
conduct," Peggy Little, NCLA senior litigation counsel, said in a
statement. "This 'android attack,' deliberately designed to override
the constitutional and legal rights of citizens to be free from
government intrusions upon their privacy without their consent, reads
like dystopian science fiction -- and must be swiftly invalidated by
the court."

  * Germany says nein to Qatari World Cup spyware, err, apps
  * Apple sued for collecting user data despite opt-outs
  * Google agrees to $391.5m settlement in privacy lawsuit
  * COVID-19 contact tracing apps were suggested as saviors. They
    sometimes delivered

Per the legal challenge, the plaintiffs are asking the court to,
among other things, stop secretly installing the contract tracing app
without device owners' consent, and work with Google to uninstall the
app in cases where the owner did not give permission and opt-in to
downloading the tracer. They also want the court to declare that the
"clandestine installations" of the tracing app violate state and
federal protections.

The lawsuit seeks to make the health agency pay all costs and
attorney fees related to the legal battle, and nominal damages of $1.

When asked about the lawsuit, a Massachusetts Department of Public
Health spokesperson told The Register that the department hasn't
received the lawsuit and doesn't comment on pending litigation.

[front]

Google did not respond to The Register's request for comment. (r)

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