Fact check: Google did not automatically sign up Android users for COVID-19 tracing app

Article by McKenzie Sadeghi – USA Today.

The claim: Google automatically signed up all Android users for a COVID-19 tracing app

New mobile contact tracing technology aimed at minimizing the spread of COVID-19 has prompted claims on social media that Google automatically updated all Android devices with a tracing app.

A June 3 Facebook posting reads, “Android users BEWARE, google automatically signed you up to COVID-19 tracing app.” […]

“The choice to use this technology rests with the user, and he or she can turn it off at any time by uninstalling the contact tracing application or turning off exposure notification in Settings,” the companies stated in their guide.

Google and Apple themselves do not have access to information related to any specific individual through the technology and access is only granted to health authorities who meet the criteria. […]

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Coronavirus: Contact tracing apps can warn you of COVID-19 exposure […]. Alexis Arnold, USA Today.