Massachusetts Govt. Accused of Installing COVID 'Contact-Trace' Spyware On Android Phones

P. Gardner Goldsmith | November 22, 2022
DONATE
Text Audio
00:00 00:00
Font Size

 

RINO Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (aka jazz great Charlie Parker, according to Joe Biden) appears to have some explaining to do.

Governor Baker's Massachusetts bureaucracy now appears to have been exposed for inappropriately spying on others.

Washington, DC-based non-profit The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) November 14 filed suit in US District Court on behalf of Plaintiffs Robert Wright, Johnny Kula, and “others similarly situated” for Declaratory and Injunctive relief against the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and its Commissioner, Margret Cooke for, as the NCLA states in the complaint:

“Conspiring with a private company to hijack residents’ smartphones without the owners’ knowledge or consent…”

Specifically, the plaintiffs assert:

“DPH developed a COVID-19 contact-tracing software application ('Contact Tracing App' or 'App') for Android mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) using an Application Programming Interface (“API”) provided by Google, Inc.”

Whoops. How could THAT have happened?

 

Related: Sen. Rand Paul And Others Question W.H.O. Planet-Policing 'Pandemic Treaty' | MRCTV

Writes the NCLA in their press release:

“Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula own and use Android mobile devices and live or work in Massachusetts. Since June 15, 2021, DPH has worked with Google to secretly install the app onto over one million Android mobile devices located in Massachusetts without obtaining any search warrants, in violation of the device owners’ constitutional and common-law rights to privacy and property.”

Wait a minute.

June, 2021.

Wasn’t that a period when Governor Charlie Park—sorry, Charlie BAKER -- was portraying himself as opposed to all that “electronic” passport and monitoring nonsense? How wildly unbelievable it is to think that this man might have had in his employ a Health Department that was using people’s tax money to spy on them.

Adds the NCLA:

“Plaintiffs have constitutionally protected liberty interests in not having their whereabouts and contacts surveilled, recorded, and broadcasted, and in preventing unauthorized and unconsented access to their personal smartphones by government agencies.”

One wonders if Baker, Cooke, and anyone else in the state who might have been party to this alleged misbehavior have the faintest inkling that the Sons of Liberty conducted the famous Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, in large part because the British were breaching their rights to privacy and free-market trade?

NCLA continues revealing the ugly allegations:

“Once ‘automatically installed, DPH’s contact tracing app does not appear alongside other apps on the Android device’s home screen. The app can be found only by opening “settings” and using the “view all apps” feature. Thus, the typical device owner remains unaware of its presence. DPH apparently decided to secretly install the contact tracing app onto over one million Android devices because few Massachusetts citizens were downloading its initial version, which required voluntary adoption. DPH decided to mass-install the app without device owners’ knowledge or consent. When smartphone owners delete the app, DPH simply re-installs it. Plaintiffs’ class-action lawsuit contains nine counts against DPH, including violations of their Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, and violations of Articles X and XIV of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.’”

Perhaps Massachusetts residents ought to throw their phones into Boston harbor – goodness knows, the brine might be too chilly for Baker and Cooke to handle.

The case is an explosive one. But in addition to the complaint about the government, itself, installing this software, how could the state “trace” people based on the medical records, if, as the US Constitution supposedly insures, the Fourth Amendment prohibits any level of government from searching private documents without a public warrant issued by a judge?

The answer comes in the Fourth Amendment-breaching Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) statute passed by Congress in 1996, a facet of which I discussed for MRCTV in May. As I noted, in it, between pages 75 and 94, investigators will see that:

“…under the guise of ‘protecting you’ from local doctors and insurance companies sharing your info without your consent (something you can handle yourself via private contract) – the feds claimed the power to have the Secretary of Health and Human Services assign you a ‘Unique Health Identifier.’ Further, HIPAA claimed the power for said HHS to collect your medical data any time, without a warrant. The provision was not put into operation until Obamacare was initiated, and now, very few people understand how “contact tracing” or “medical surveillance” can possibly happen, because they are unaware of what actually is in the power-grab of HIPAA.”

Anytime the feds want, the Secretary of HHS can demand your medical records, without a warrant, completely flouting the Fourth Amendment and showing utter contempt for the Constitution.

Oh, and if you breathed a sigh of relative relief because you don’t live in the Bay State? R. Cort Kirkwood writes for The New American that the Mass DHS likely slipped the app onto your phone if you simply visited the state.

“…(T)he state targeted not just those who live under the state’s leftist regime, but those who were merely traveling through.”

He adds:

“The spyware also represents an ‘unjust taking’ of private property, which is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment, because it physically occupies the phones without just compensation.”

And to bring this teapot to a boil, Kirkwood also notes:

“As well, the installation constitutes trespassing, violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and provides unauthorized access to a computer system.”

But, remember, this is the United States, and we’re talking about Massachusetts, here. The Bay State is the “cradle of liberty” the “home of the American Revolution,” the site of Paul Revere’s famous Midnight Ride, the location of the Boston Massacre and the Shot Heard Round the World, the place where the Sons of Liberty got the independence movement rolling.

No way could such a powerful legacy be tossed away… Right?

 

Follow MRCTV on Twitter!

 

 

 

 

donate