WASHINGTON, DC, Nov. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) worked with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents without their knowledge or consent a misguided attempt to combat Covid-19. Such outrageous disregard for civil liberties violates the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions and cannot stand. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, has filed a motion class action, Wright v. Massachusetts Department of Health, et al.Questioning DPH’s covert installation of a Covid tracing app that tracks and records the movements and personal contacts of Android mobile device users without the permission or knowledge of the owners.

Plaintiffs Robert Wright and Johnny Kula own and use Android mobile devices and live or work in Massachusetts. As of June 15, 2021, DPH has been working with Google to secretly install the app on over one million Android mobile devices in Massachusetts without obtaining search warrants, in violation of device owners’ constitutional and common rights to privacy and property. The plaintiffs have constitutionally protected liberty interests in not having their whereabouts and contacts monitored, recorded and transmitted and in preventing unauthorized and unauthorized access to their personal smartphones by government agencies.

Once “installed automatically‘, DPH’s contact tracing app does not appear alongside other apps on the Android device’s home screen. The app can only be found by opening “Settings” and using the “Show all apps” feature. Thus, the typical device owner remains unaware of their presence. DPH apparently decided to covertly install the contact-tracing app on over a million Android devices because few Massachusetts residents downloaded the original version, which required voluntary adoption. DPH decided to bulk install the app without…