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Alarm Over Invasive Shlonik App

BBC published an article today bringing into spotlight Kuwait’s Shlonik Covid-19 contact-tracing app calling it once of the most invasive in the world along with Bahrain’s BeAware app. BBC goes even further by describing them both as “mass surveillance tools”.

Most contact-tracing apps rely solely on Bluetooth signals, but Bahrain and Kuwait’s capture location data through GPS and upload this to a central database, tracking the movements of users in real time.

The researchers say Bahraini and Kuwaiti authorities would be able to easily link this sensitive personal information to an individual, as users are required to register with a national ID number. Other countries’ contact tracing apps anonymise users. Source

I’m guessing citizens under forced home quarantine can’t do much about this but everyone else will probably delete the app once the article makes its rounds today. It will also be interesting to see how Zain will distance itself from all this since this can’t be a good look for them.

44 replies on “Alarm Over Invasive Shlonik App”

No surprises here. Things move so slow sometimes in Kuwait I was amazed at how fast these two things happened during this event:
1) The barrier walls, fences, and barbwire erected to isolate lockdown areas and
2) how fast this application was available for use (design, development, coding, ect.). It was as if the app was already developed prior to the actual event.

I would imagine whoever did this app doesn’t have the know-how to develop Bluetooth tracing, I mean Google-Apple were collaborating for months to do that, so this seems more of a fast lazy development solution, rather than deliberate surveillance. You know how much we love lazy solutions here.

Lazy solutions, that’s funny! They should have collaborated with Talabat to track all of us and our food deliveries!! 🙂

If I’m not mistaken, they used the same app Bahrain was using and re-branded it to a local one in a short time

I think the general population doesn’t care even if it made the newspapers, but they will act if there’s a WhatsApp broadcast that says the app can access your camera and spy on you in the bathroom.

Isn’t location tracking the whole point of the app anyways?
They want to know if you’re in your house during quarantine…
or, if u recently tested positive, where you’ve been in the past days

Good point, the app originally started as an app to track home quarantiners to make sure they don’t leave their home. I think the privacy issue pops up because they were telling people to install the app for tracing and for tracing they don’t need the GPS location. But interesting that the article mentions that in other countries even tracing is anonymous. So how do they know who I made contact with? Or do they just message the other person via the app not know who they r to let them know they’ve been in contact with a COVID positive person?

Anonymous tracing works like this (assuming all phones in this scenario have the tracing app installed and Bluetooth on): your phone constantly exchanges BT signals with other phones within a predetermined radius, logging the exchanges that last x number of seconds and discarding the rest. Logged BT exchanges are kept for 14 days on your phone then deleted. If within those 14 days someone tests positive whose phone is in your BT log, the app directs you to get tested. It doesn’t tell authorities your GPS locations or where or when you met.

Forgot to mention the most important part: the app doesn’t tell authorities WHO you came in contact with, just that you’ve been around an infected person (who remains unknown to both you and authorities AFAIK)

Hmmm… interesting… I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers didn’t know this feature of tracing

I highly disagree, the fact is this app is a life saver. Having been on shlonk i saw several people in my quarantine building get pulled out for being positive for corona. It’s app, when your 2 weeks are over you remove it they literally tell you to stay home in the west this app makes sure of it cause people weren’t following orders. The government already knows every single thing about us, do you really think they care? When getting a visa to Kuwait you literally give up everything about yourself plus what are they going to use it for?

If this was a horrible country they wouldn’t still be under lockdown, they would have opened up like everyone else rather than destroy their own economy to ensure their people are safe. Kuwait is slowing down dramatically compared to the rest of the gulf and believe me, next week corona cases will explode globally as countries prefer the economy and taxes over people.

Plus i love the west, in London you are under 24/7 surveillance, when in london count the number of hidden security cameras on the streets not related to buildings, i counted 25 in a 5 minute walk to hyde park. In America you are constantly being under surveillance through your phone’s facial recognition (see alexandria ocasio-cortez). The west always think they are the sons of god, i never hear criticism about them, i just hear them criticising everyone else.

They call our tv shows racist but have you seen their tv shows? Have you seen little Britain? Have you seen American late night talk shows? They attacked the “brutality” by the police in Hong Kong yet dont say shit about what is happening in America?
a fucking reporter who is standing on a wall far away from the protesters gets hit on the stomach with a shield then hit while they are running away? people are being forced into their own homes even if they are in their balconies? There was a scene in cnn a few days ago where they pulled a woman by her hair and beat the crap out of her, even kicked her while holding her by the hair for protesting. Let’s also talk about how arabs have multiple wives and they think it’s bad yet borris can CHEAT on his wife and people didnt say anything (I know i was actually in the uk at the time). The wests are the sons of god, no other excuse for their actions.

If only people knew exactly how the internet works in Kuwait and even overseas. I won’t explain it but in the 80s and 90s the United States government would keep tabs on people who took out flagged books from libraries. Now I’ll let your imagination go free with what is possible when your entire life is voluntarily shared on line being served by an ISP.

Im sorry but i dont see what the problem with those devices are? Like its only for people who returned from places with high corona numbers. Are they saying that it’s better to infect people and risk their lives than to give up a month of freedom? Kill humans for freedom (sounds like america). I’ll say this here and now i will gladly sell my freedom for months and years if it keeps my circle safe, and their circle and the circles of everyone connected to me because im an important link in this cause i came from abroad with possible corona and ill never forgive myself if i killed someone for being negligent.

Mark the things you write about would have you jailed in many other countries, the criticism, the comments people right. Mark be honest and tell me if this country could easily harass you for not being a slave to them where you are forced to call kuwait heaven then why is your website still open and you can criticise all you like? Why is instagram full of people expressing their rights at criticising the government on official news and government outlets. Why did i send a dm to the ministry of info telling them the minister is ruining out country with his backwards brotherhood ways all while i was wearing this bracelet and being tracked.

That they are using it for a select number of people who are returning from countries with high levels of corona. Its not a mass surveillance, it us to keep people safe from corona. How else are the supposed to ensure people stay at home?

Ohhhhhh i see, ok, based on this comment and the one you just left Amna it seems there is a bit of confusion on your end to how this app works how it has moved beyond just the quarantine people.

Firstly, the app doesn’t require the bracelet to work or track you. If you install the app now and give the app permission to access your GPS and Bluetooth then the government will be able to start tracking you.

The idea behind this app is a positive goodwill one but the implementation of it is what is considered sketchy.

If everyone has it installed then if you are tested and are positive with covid then the government can then track and see who you were in contact with to isolate them as well.

The issue is this also means that the government can track you at any time. Again you could use the argument let them track me i have nothing to hide but that’s not a good argument. You can use the argument but it’s a good thing they can track so they can see who you have infected, but this can be done anonymously without having to track the whereabouts of every citizen.

The whole app revolves around the bracelet which no one has except people returning from abroad which isn’t happening except for a handful of people. I can provide you with screenshots, it is designed to keep bracelet holders at home 24/7, mark isnt that what you were complaining about? How people with bracelets not staying home.

If you dont want shlonik you dont come to kuwait until corona is over, that is what i was told in the agreement document. They arent gonna use it after corona is over.

I think you have an issue with what the BBC article is stating and you’re letting it out on me as if I wrote it. You should instead email them your opinion or hit them up with a tweet.

The app does not need the bracelet to track you. I used it, and it still tracks me after handing in the bracelet – I’m not even sure what the bracelet was for, to be honest. The app uses location services on your phone to track you through GPS technology. It’s as simple as that. I’m sure that the app helped Kuwait a lot in its “fight” against COVID-19. However, learning how it tracks people shows how invasive it is. Surely someone in the Central Agency for Information Technology would have shown some concern – I hope. GPS tracking raises several interesting ethical issues that need to be explored further. If you’re interested in reading more about this, there are several papers and journals regarding this topic online. I suggest “The Emerging Ethics of Humancentric GPS Tracking and Monitoring” by K. Michael, et al.This is definitely an ethical grey area, especially since the tracking is for minimizing the spread of an infectious disease. So, I’m not necessarily with or against this issue.

On the other hand, it is very ok to criticize a government when you see something weird or wrong happening. A government needs public input and response to what it is doing. If we, as citizens, never give some *constructive criticism* on some of our government’s actions and decisions, we will never develop as a country. We should stop attacking any form of valid investigations and criticisms regarding our country. We should be taking it, instead, as a way to improve and develop as a nation. We should always address the errors of our ways and learn from them, only then can we be better as a country.

If we merely resort to “whataboutism” when confronted with a piece of information, we will never accomplish anything. Sure other countries may also be doing similar things. But why is that the standard? Why do we keep comparing ourselves to them?

Also, I don’t think it’s fair to criticize the BBC for pointing this out. As a news organization, it has the right to report on what it is interested in, just like organizations like Al Qabas, the Kuwait Times, Al Rai, etc. Sure the BBC published an article about Kuwaiti and Bahraini apps, but how is that a double standard? I don’t understand how that is hypocritical of them. Even if Western governments do the same thing, the BBC or any news organization doesn’t speak for them and nor are they the governments themselves. In fact, many Western news organizations have published several articles about certain Western countries conducting mass surveillance.
For example:
– this is an article from the Independent (a British news organization) talking about mass surveillance in the UK: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/uk-mass-surveillance-gchq-eu-human-rights-echr-edward-snowden-a8535571.html
– this is an article from the *BBC itself* reporting on a court case regarding mass surveillance: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-49153593

So, the BBC talking about this is *definitely not* hypocritical. It would be hypocritical, though, if a government that practices mass surveillance criticizes another for doing so.

The bracelet was used just to make sure you were next to your phone. As in you didn’t leave your phone at home and then went out to see your friends.

“Both the Bahraini and Kuwaiti apps can pair with a Bluetooth bracelet which is used to make sure the user remains in the vicinity of the phone, in order to enforce quarantine measures. The Kuwait app regularly checks the distance between the Bluetooth bracelet and the device, uploading location data every 10 minutes to a central server.”
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/bahrain-kuwait-norway-contact-tracing-apps-danger-for-privacy/

Thanks for the explanation of how the bracelet works, Mark!
It is interesting that Norway has set up a similar, invasive program only to reevaluate their decisions. I am interested in the security of that “central server” for both Kuwait and Bahrain. It doesn’t seem very safe that the information regarding the whereabouts of every person who used the app is stored in one central server. I hope that it is secure enough so that people who shouldn’t have access to it can’t access it.

Honestly, when it comes down to the safety of others, I’ll willingly give my privacy up (anyway, I have nothing to hide so couldn’t care less).

Plus, the way I see it: if this makes contact tracing easier, cool then! The less transmission and less people infected, the more likely we are to pass to the next ‘stage’.

The app needs the bracelet, the bracelet was only given to people who returned from abroad. It is designed to check on your symptoms, that you havent left home and that you are still wearing the bracelet.

Enjoyed his Joe Rogan interview. The sad thing is, as seen in the piece John Oliver made with Edward Snowden when he interviewed random people on the street, privacy is no longer a concern of people. If I told you that every piece of transmission sent electronically is intercepted by every country’s border gateways as well as the device vendor you’re connected to like cisco or Huawei do you think people would care? Some yes but overwhelming no. The internet is like tap water.

Older generations conserved it by taking one shower a week where we now take hour long showers daily. ( Which uses 7 liters per minute btw)

The internet has become that. In the 90s it was there but it wasn’t life nor an extension of life. Like early video game consoles, you can play maybe an hour before it heats up and you have to turn it off.

And the really sad thing is even in democracies like the United States the people ruling or making the laws know nothing about technology. If you want to release a car you need to go through so many hoops but if I made an app tomorrow that can capture people’s voices, location, images, contacts etcs, like Facebook or Instagram then people won’t care.

People don’t understand what is captured on an application level. You can have a dumb phone but if your number is on someone else’s then your information is captured.

The internet now is still like the first cars made, people didn’t care about safety or airbags or seat belts, they just want to go fast.

Maybe yes one day we will have the equivalent of the airbag for the internet but it’s already too late. Our information is stored and locked and the algorithms used to predict behavior are crazy.

I work with Amazon as one of their last mile delivery brokers. They pay us per weight. One time a customer order a case of Pepsi which costs 10 dollars in stores. Customer paid 10 on Amazon with free shipping, the warehouse people got paid 5 to bring it to the warehouse and we got paid 12 so that’s a 7 dollar loss on Amazons part.

The Amazon rep was there that day and I asked her about it. You know what she said? ” We don’t care about losing money, we care about your data. That’s what we sell”

It’s one of the reasons why I think it’s hypocritical for people to allow companies to take all their information from them willingly or unwillingly and not allow governments to do so. Like Facebook has shadow profiles for people who aren’t on Facebook.

The whole argument of privacy is a waste of time.

If you think the government has access to everything that’s just you believing random Facebook posts and conspiracy theories but it doesn’t mean its true.

Just look at how the US government is battling Apple over privacy because Apple isn’t allowing the US government access to people’s locked iphones.

The US government can’t access your private data or access your private chats and that’s because Apple and other tech companies are fighting for your right to privacy… even if you don’t care about it.

Little bit off topic but We expats predicted that the infections among Kuwaitis will increase after May 31 after they locked down all 5 expat majority areas. I wonder if the government will punish us expats again for this by going back to phase 0

I don’t understand what the big deal is. The app is for people who are infected with COVID or have come from COVID-infected countries. They tell you to install it so that they can make sure you don’t leave your house and infect anyone else. You only have to install it for two weeks. After that, you can delete it. Public health is much more important than a two-week long POTENTIAL breach of privacy.

The discussion we are all having is regarding the Amnesty International report that talks about the bigger picture which is privacy. Yes, the benefits of this app are obvious but were there less invasive alternatives? If the government tomorrow decides to make it mandatory for every citizen (not just ones who came in from abroad) to install the app for contact tracing, is that ok? How much privacy do you have to give up? Do you care about privacy?

These are all interesting questions and discussions to have. Here is the link to the Amnesty International report if you want to check it out https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/06/bahrain-kuwait-norway-contact-tracing-apps-danger-for-privacy/

Thank you for bringing this issue up and sharing the article Mark. I get that this discussion needs to be had now before this thing transitions to a mass-surveillance for everyone, but there is no indication that we’re heading that way. Moreover, the article was a bit misleading regarding Shlonik in that they suggest that the main reason the app requires GPS data is for contact tracing, which is not true. GPS data is required so that they can make sure that infected or potentially infected people stay home.

No man. I was a network engineer at an ISP in Kuwait. I know what I am talking about. I literally testified in court to validate the authenticity of the date that was intercepted. I don’t even have Facebook. And the shadow profile I mentioned was a question that Congress asked Zuckerberg and he responded and explained.

Also, you’re the one who quoted Snowden who actually pointed out that the government can access your information. If any information leaves or comes back to the States it is accessible and intercepted. Whereas data overseas is always accessible.

and now regulations in the middle East are even tighter with internet border gateway connections passing through central government routers. Cetra in Kuwait for example.

Even here in Canada. Your location is logged for months if not years. People get texts from the government asking did you witness something the day you were in this location because a crime took place.

I’m talking from the technically capabilities of the internet, not conspiracy theories you’re welcome to believe me or not doesn’t change the fact that it’s true read snowden’s book and you’ll understand.

The question isn’t whether or not government has access to your information, it’s which level of government does. In the 90s and the 80s each telephone operator in the United States had to intercept any faxes being sent to middle East. To do this the had huge machines that literally would copy the faxed information and then send it over.

This was expensive and very bulky. Now, everything is over IP.

The real fun will be when this Shlonik app asks you to ‘send location via Whatsapp’.

THIS factor has become the single biggest stay-at-home irritant for me in the past 3 months. Its as if delivery drivers refuse to even read the address on the order form!

Surprisingly, they claim that the app will continue to trace us even if Covid19 is over. Plus, they’re saying it’s “invasive”. As if people had no clue about the app. People are smart and they knew all about the app. When I arrived from abroad, I had to get it installed before I can leave the airport. I took selfies every single day, 4-6 times a day. I haven’t complained about my privacy being breached, because I knew all about it before deciding to come and I agreed to it. My friend thought it was too much and decided to stay abroad. She’s now regretting it, because it wasn’t much of a hassle. It wasn’t as bad as they made it sound. It was okay, no big deal. Also, after my 28 days of quarantining at home, I can no longer see them trace me anymore? The location bit seems to just disappear? I don’t know! But if this is my part in helping to tackle Covid19, I’d do it happily and I won’t complain in the name of “privacy”. We’re talking about a deadly virus here! It would have been good if they did Kuwait a bit of justice and mentioned that 70% of those infected recovered, but “no”, no surprise here. No Shit Sherlock. I think it’s worth mentioning that there’s an app underdevelopment called “HealthPass” and it’s being tested now. Few volunteers decided to test the app and get their feedbacks sent to the developer. So, they can get all the bugs fixed before being released. The app protects everyone’s privacy, so there shouldn’t be anything worrying here. I think if they’re gonna make tracing mandatory. They might use HealthPass. Thanks for bringing up this issue.

After Covid they should rebrand Shlonik app to Shaytankum and let parents track where the hell their kids are and who they are in contact with, haha!!

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