Is My Smartphone Tracking COVID-19 Exposures Without My Consent?

 Remember a few months ago when Google and Apple joined forces to come up with a system to help state and local governments establish a COVID-19 Exposure Notification system? If you didn’t, you aren’t alone. A lot has been going on lately. Just to catch you up, the two tech giants recently pushed out an update across nearly all modern smartphones so state and local governments can deploy apps to notify people when they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Let’s do a deep dive on what this means for your privacy.

To be honest, we stopped thinking about Google and Apple’s COVID-19 Exposure Notification system too. That is, until we started seeing social media posts going around over the last week or so claiming that Android and iPhones have been getting a COVID-19 tracking app installed without getting permission from the user first. 

Here is an example of one of the posts that have been making rounds across Facebook:

**VERY IMPORTANT ALERT!***
A COVID-19 sensor has been secretly installed into every phone.
Apparently, when everyone was having “phone disruption” over the weekend, they were adding COVID-19 Tracker [SIC] to our phones!

If you have an Android phone, go under settings, then look for google settings and you will find it installed there.

If you are using an iPhone, go under settings, privacy, then health. It is there but not yet functional.

The App can notify you if you’ve been near someone who has been reported having COVID-19.

We checked our phones and confirmed that the option is clearly there. On Android, go to your Settings and tap on Google Settings and front and center will be an option to opt-in to the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system. By default, you are not opted in.

On iPhones, go to Settings, then Privacy, then Health and you’ll see a similar opt in that is currently disabled. In fact, you can’t enable it unless you’ve installed an official COVID-19 Exposure Notification app from your local or state government.

No, Android and iOS Didn’t Sneak a COVID-19 Tracking App On Your Phone - It’s Just a New Security Setting

The two tech giants have been working together to build an API (short for Application  Programming Interface) for a standardized system to make it easier for states and local governments to build an effective app to notify users if they may have been exposed to COVID-19. Google and Apple aren’t building the apps or pushing them out to users. If you see this setting, rest easy knowing they didn’t sneak a COVID-19 app onto your phone without your consent. 

It’s Not the App, It’s the Opt-In the Apps Will Require

Just to be perfectly clear, unless you manually installed something, your Android or iPhone isn’t just going to start tracking you and your friends and family to see if you have COVID-19.

Apple and Google confirmed this in a joint statement saying “What we’ve built is not an app - rather public agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install.”

One thing worth pointing out is that the system won’t work as well if users don’t participate - if half of all users decide not to opt in, the system might not be reliable enough to do much good. It’s really up to the local governments and states to raise awareness while addressing the public’s concerns for privacy. With that said, what is being done to ensure that your privacy is protected?

Is the COVID-19 Exposure Notification Update from Google and Apple Safe?

Keep in mind, it’s really up to state and local governments to deploy the official apps themselves. Apple and Google merely laid out some groundwork that these apps can utilize.

Here’s how it works. First, you need to install an official application from your local or state government. When you install it and set it up, you’ll also need to opt in to Google or Apple’s API (that’s the new setting everyone is worried about). Once you are set up, a random ID is generated and exchanged between your phone and other nearby phones (that also opted in) within Bluetooth range. These random, anonymous IDs are stored on your phone. The random IDs are also changed every 10 to 20 minutes so they can’t be tracked. In short, your phone keeps tabs of phones it has been near without collecting or sharing any personally identifiable information.

If someone is diagnosed with COVID-19 and that personal manually shares that information with one of the official contact tracing apps, all of the random IDs their phone has collected over the past two weeks are uploaded (with that user’s permission) and the users of those IDs are notified that they may have been exposed. 

In other words, you don’t know who or where you may have been exposed to COVID-19. You just know that, at some point, the owner of one of the phones you’ve been within 30-or-so feet of has shared that they have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Most importantly, the system doesn’t track your location, or share other users’ identities within the app, or even with Google or Apple. According to Google, the apps are not allowed to use your phone’s location or track your location in the background.

The technology is very secure and anonymous. It has to be, because it has to fall under the strict rules that govern healthcare data.

The Big Question Everyone is Asking: How Do You Uninstall the Apple/Google COVID-19 Exposure Notification Update?

Let’s get this out of the way. There is no app to uninstall. It’s an update to the Android and iOS operating system as part of a recent security update. The update isn’t tracking you - it’s simply a setting that lets you decide if you want to opt in to participate in the COVID-19 Exposure Notification System.

The only real danger is if you search around the Internet and follow instructions that walk you through rolling back your phone or other risky procedures to try to remove the update. That puts your phone at risk for other threats. There is nothing to uninstall, and rolling back your phone and preventing future security updates from ever getting installed is not a good plan.

If you don’t want to particulate, simply do not opt in. If you are worried about it, both Apple and Google state that by simply not installing a COVID-19 Exposure Notification app, or uninstalling one if you did install one, is all it takes to not participate.

JUST TO MAKE IT CLEAR: DO NOT FOLLOW ANY INSTRUCTIONS ONLINE THAT WALK YOU THROUGH ROLLING BACK YOUR PHONE AND OPTING OUT OF SECURITY UPDATES. 

That is only going to put your data and your privacy at risk. In other words, it’s shortsighted.

That said, the choice to opt in or out of the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system is yours to make, but Google and Apple seem to have built a system that is secure, without violating anyone’s privacy. If you have any concerns about the security of your data, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Net It On.

Is the Cloud More than Your Business Needs?

 Five months into the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have resolved to shift their operations and replace a lot of their onsite computing hardware with cloud solutions. While the cloud has proven to be a great method for businesses to obtain the resources they need without investing in the associated costs of a hardware refresh, its other costs could prove problematic. Let’s examine your options briefly and try to establish a sense of value.

Cloud Computing’s Benefits

In many ways, cloud computing seems like a bit of a no-brainer. As a secure and reliable platform, businesses can accomplish more without the concerns of security failures that once held them back. As a result, the cloud can provide the accessibility, mobility, and scalability today’s businesses need in a way that is very cost-effective. Since the provider maintains the cloud infrastructure, the business that subscribes to their services only needs to pay a manageable monthly fee.

Through this arrangement, businesses can access exactly the infrastructure that they will need—software and hardware maintenance included—available on a sliding scale. Any changes, increasing or decreasing resources, are as simple to make as can be. This simplicity is part of the reason that so many business processes are now entrusted to cloud services, from backup and communications to security and storage.

The Potential Downside to the Cloud

For all its benefits, there is one factor that makes the cloud a less appealing option: its costs.

Now, this can be hard for some people to believe. After all, an on-premise infrastructure requires you to purchase the expensive hardware and software needed to support it, deploy these resources where they are called for, and manage it. How can cloud computing be more expensive than that?

Simple: building an IT infrastructure has certain costs associated with it that need to be addressed.

That’s just it—the majority of cloud platforms aren’t delivered at a flat rate. While a service like Software as a Service can come at a relatively low monthly rate, once you begin the customization processes upon your cloud you’ll likely see your costs expand beyond what your own infrastructure would have cost.

The cloud can be either cost-effective or expensive. To help you avoid your budget being undermined by the added values of cloud computing, reach out to the IT professionals at Net It On. We’ll assess your situation and assist you in implementing the best solution for your needs. Give us a call at (732) 360-2999 to learn more.

How to Properly Manage Mobile Devices Connected to Your Business

 As remote work has become more common, so have tools that assist mobility and Bring Your Own Device strategies. Considering this, businesses need the means to keep control of their data and the technology that can access it. To do so, Mobile Device Management cannot be oversold as a benefit.

Let’s go through a few key best practices for utilizing MDM in your operations.

Defining Mobile Device Management

MDM is effectively the strategic application of solutions and software that establish and enforce policies that control how your business’ data can be accessed and used. In doing so, you give your IT resources the means to improve data security, enabling your business to make the most of a Bring Your Own Device implementation.

As with any solution, of course, it pays off to select your solution carefully. Here are a few considerations to make as you put MDM in place:

You Establish a Realistic Policy

If you’ve decided to enable your employees the ability to use their personal device, it is important that you consider the fact that there’s going to be some who prefer Android, and some who prefer iOS. Your MDM solution will therefore need to support both. Furthermore, you should ensure that your solution is compatible with both the devices you own and those that belong to your employees, with a policy that reflects the difference.

Devices Can Be Tracked and Managed

Unfortunately, there’s always the chance that one of your employees may have to be terminated. An MDM solution can help you to prevent any retribution. Let’s say that this employee was a part of your BYOD implementation. A good MDM solution will inform you if his device still has access to company accounts and revoke that access remotely.

These capabilities also make it a lot easier to troubleshoot and resolve any latent issues in your employees’ technology.

Enforceable Security

While security is clearly important to your business, your employees may not grasp the true extent of their responsibility in upholding it. The inherent optimism bias so many have simply won’t allow them to believe that they need to worry about security. Rather than trying to convince them otherwise, an MDM solution enables you to enforce the standards you want upheld, like password requirements, encryption and security benchmarks, remote wiping capabilities, and others.

Comprehensive Backup

Assuming you’ve properly backed up your business’ data, I have a question to ask you: does that include the data stored on your employees’ devices? An employee’s device is just as susceptible to damage and consequent data loss. In keeping with best practices, you need to ensure that any company data on their device is automatically saved to your cloud. That way, even if the device is damaged or lost, your data continuity won’t be.

How Will Businesses Adjust their Technology Use After COVID-19?

 The impact of COVID-19 to businesses has been such that we will not likely return to the way business was run before all of this happened. A major factor to this is how businesses once made use of their technology. The shifts that have occurred in the last few months will not likely go away, even after the pandemic ends.

Let’s take account of a few technologies that will likely see significant changes—even in the days after the pandemic.

Hardware

As fears of transmitting germs are growing in people’s minds—seriously, when was the last time it was scarier to see someone without a mask—many of your employees might be reluctant to use the equipment that spends all its time in the shared office environment. Heck, many people may not be too enthusiastic to return to the office at first, regardless, and may want the option to work remotely more often. Even your most mysophobic employee isn’t going to want to haul a desktop back and forth from the office.

This challenge will probably give an additional boost to Bring Your Own Device policies, as employees will not only have a familiar device to use… they’ll also know where it has been. Otherwise, mobile devices and laptops will likely become more often seen in the office, as their inherent mobility makes remote work easier.

Infrastructure

On a similar note, on-premise hardware solutions will likely be increasingly phased out by cloud-based options. The ease of use goes both ways in the business sense: it is easier for a team to access the resources they need, and the technology becomes easier to manage. After all, in-house hardware would require someone to enter the business to fix an issue. With a cloud-based infrastructure, the provider is responsible for maintaining and managing it. Cloud-based solutions are also inherently scalable, so adjusting your resources is far simpler to accomplish.

Collaboration

While collaboration at a distance may still sound strange to many, there are plenty of technology solutions available that allow you to accomplish just that. By combining the right software and the right hardware, or by enlisting a service for assistance, you can enable your team to virtually assemble. As a result, your business can accomplish more without adding to the health risks.

Regardless of what happens next, business operations are bound to change. Don’t get left behind because you didn’t make the changes quickly enough. Net It On is here to support you and your IT throughout these transitions and beyond.

Keeping Thorough Records Can Help Your Business

 If your business uses as much technology as the average business, you will need to ensure that it is properly documented. Today, we’ll go through what a managed service provider includes in their documentation practices.

What Does This Documentation Include?

All there is to know about every piece of technology you rely upon can easily be divided between your hardware and software documentation practices. 

Hardware

Here is some of the information you will definitely want to keep records of:

Serial/Model Numbers - Simple identification of the technology that needs support, as well as the kind of device it is for your support team’s benefit.

Purchase Dates - Knowing when a piece of hardware was acquired can help you to make decisions when looking to repair or replace the hardware.

Warranty Information - Knowing whether a piece of equipment is still under warranty can also help your decision-making processes. 

Installation Dates - Knowing when a piece of technology was installed can help with the troubleshooting process if it were to need support.

Physical Locations - Knowing where a device is located not only helps your support team to service it more easily, it enables you to keep better track of where your assets are.

Device Names - Naming the device helps to differentiate it from the others just like it.

IP Addresses - Knowing your IP addresses simplifies the process of locating it on your network.

Software

Your software is mightily important and should be documented properly. Here are some of the elements you’ll want to record:

Product Licenses - Tracking your product licenses gives you the individual identification number of the copy (or copies) of the software you are able to use.

Purchase Dates - Like the hardware, it helps you ascertain if your solution is under warranty and other important variables.

Install Dates - Knowing when a software solution was installed can provide a variety of important information, particularly involving any weaknesses in its programming.

Subscription Details - This information is vital to know if you want to keep these tools available to your users.

Usernames or Registration Emails -  You will want to know who can access each software title with their username. Often, getting support or logging in to the vendor’s website will require this.

Version History - Finally, keeping track of the current version of each of your software will allow you to know if an update is called for, or if there are any vulnerabilities that you need to be concerned about.

Additionally, you will want to create and maintain documentation on the proper procedures to keep these solutions current and working as intended.

What is the Benefit of All This Documentation?

Having all of this information documented will go a long way toward allowing you to keep track of your technology investments. If you would like help with the documentation process, or if you would like to speak to one of our IT experts about what information we keep, call us today at (732) 360-2999.