{"id":1745211,"date":"2022-11-19T15:17:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T20:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1745211"},"modified":"2022-11-19T15:17:53","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T20:17:53","slug":"massachusetts-accused-of-installing-covid-spyware-on-over-a-million-phones-in-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/massachusetts-accused-of-installing-covid-spyware-on-over-a-million-phones-in-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Accused Of Installing COVID \u2018Spyware\u2019 On Over A Million Phones In Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmassachusetts-accused-of-installing-covid-spyware-on-over-a-million-phones-in-lawsuit%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1745211&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/massachusetts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Massachusetts<\/a> Department of Health (DPH) has been accused of installing \u201cspyware\u201d on people\u2019s devices without their knowledge to do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/covid-19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">COVID<\/a> contact tracing, according to a civil liberties law firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Complaint_Wright-with-Exhibit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed<\/a> a suit this week that accuses DPH of creating a COVID contact tracing app with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/google\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google<\/a> that was then installed on resident\u2019s phones without their knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese secret installations not only invade owners\u2019 reasonable expectation of privacy, but they also intrude upon owners\u2019 property right in their mobile devices by occupying valuable storage space,\u201d the class-action lawsuit, entitled <em>Wright v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit contends that the actions of the DPH during the pandemic were unconstitutional and showed a \u201cbrazen disregard for civil liberties.\u201d It also claims that the app was installed \u201csecretly\u201d on the phones of over a million Bay State residents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even if an individual did not opt into the tracking app, the lawsuit says that data and information about the user from the phone could still be accessed via Bluetooth.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to the NCLA, the app <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2022\/11\/15\/2556568\/0\/en\/NCLA-Files-Class-Action-Against-Massachusetts-for-Auto-Installing-Covid-Spyware-on-1-Million-Phones.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">could<\/a> only be accessed after going to the \u201csettings\u201d section of the phones and then going to \u201cview all apps.\u201d Peggy Little, a senior litigator for NCLA called the alleged actions of DPH akin to \u201cdystopian science fiction.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis \u2018android attack,\u2019 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 \u2014 and must be swiftly invalidated by the court,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The NCLA is representing two individuals, who frequent Massachusetts (one has a home and the other works in the state) who say the app was installed on their Android phones without their permission. They said they deleted the app after discovering its presence on their phones.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The group contrasts the alleged actions of Massachusetts DPH with that of other states who rolled out a similar app, but let individuals opt in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany states and foreign countries have successfully deployed contact tracing apps by obtaining the consent of their citizens before downloading software onto their smartphones,\u201d said NCLA counsel Sheng Li. \u201cThe government may not secretly install surveillance devices on your personal property without a warrant \u2014 even for a laudable purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/2022\/11\/18\/massachusetts-dph-google-secretly-installed-covid-spyware-onto-1m-phones-lawsuit-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> to the Boston Herald, DPH said it could not \u201ccomment on pending litigation.\u201d The Daily Wire also reached out the department for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Massachusetts Department of Health (DPH) has been accused of installing \u201cspyware\u201d on people\u2019s devices without their knowledge to do COVID contact tracing, according to a civil liberties law firm.\u00a0 The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed a suit this week that accuses DPH of creating a COVID contact tracing app with Google that was &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":1745214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1745211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1745214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}