Apple was not named in the suit and there was no indication that Apple users' personal information could be exposed.
The plaintiffs sought to represent a nationwide class of Android users who activated a contract tracing app that use GAEN, as well as a separate subclass comprised of California residents. In their suit, the pair demanded that Google fix the security flaw and pay damages.
Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in response to the lawsuit that GAEN uses "privacy preserving technology" and that neither Google, Apple nor other users can use the system to identify individuals. He added that the matching happens only on devices.
"These Bluetooth identifiers do not reveal a user's location or provide any other identifying information and we have no indication that they were used inappropriately, nor that any app was even aware of this," Castaneda told Law360.
But the spokesperson also said that the tech giant was patching an issue: "We were notified of an issue where the Bluetooth identifiers were temporarily accessible to some preinstalled applications for debugging purposes … We reviewed the issue, considered mitigations, updated the code and are ensuring the fix is rolled out to users."
Follow PrivacyWatch.news to learn more about how contact tracing apps and other related technologies leave users vulnerable to data theft. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk Law360.comDr. Rand Paul doubles down, takes on Dr. Fauci and the coronavirus gain-of-function coverup
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