PORTLAND, Oregon — As some parts of the country consider using apps to help with COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, Oregon's Attorney General is sending a strong message to Google and Apple to protect people's private information.
“It’s worse than frustrating,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. “The idea that scammers are lurking in the shadows just waiting to pounce any time there's a disaster.”
COVID-19 has afforded crooks some unique opportunities to infiltrate people's personal information, but Rosenblum does not want contact tracing apps to be one of them.
“Anytime there's an app, there's the potential for personal privacy to be compromised,” said Rosenblum.
Because of that, Rosenblum and Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson co-wrote a letter to the Chief Executive Officers of Google and Apple. The letter, signed by 37 other Attorneys General, asked the companies to help protect people's personal information.
“We wanted to put Google and Apple on notice that… these contact tracing apps must be affiliated with a public health authority or university and if they're not, there's no reason for them to have them,” said Rosenblum. “They should take them down.”
The Oregon Health Authority tells KGW it is not using a contact tracing app and doesn't plan to. Besides removing unverified apps, the letter also asked Apple and Google to pledge to remove all COVID-19 exposure notification and contact tracing apps once the pandemic is over.
Rosenblum encouraged people to cooperate with legitimate contact tracers, but cautioned they should only reach out to people by phone or postal mail. She said those who send text messages or e-mails are impostors, trying a phishing scam.
“I just want everyone to be safe,” said Rosenblum. “Know we're all going to get through this together.”