Covid-19: "Necessary" app to trace foreign tourists mooted for October

[belfast3]

3 hours ago, johnch99 said:

The problem with that is that it only means the person doesn't have covid at the time of the test

+ that such tests are hard to come by in that timeframe - any sane tourist won't bother with the stress of missing their flight because a test wasn't back in time. 

[The Barmbeker]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I just ignore it and walk in.

The guards don't seem bothered, at least they've never questioned me about walking past.

That was my point!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

For the wealthy Thai Elite guys...instead of a mobile phone app, how about their own personal TH COVID nurse/assistant, follows and goes with them everywhere...  Now that would go over well with the tourist crowd...  Better than paying to be cooped up in a quarantine room.

 

 

Twice daily temperature checks (you know where...) But one sneeze, cough, fever or runny nose.... and you're off to quarantine!!!

 

Edited August 20, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[rvaviator]

Tracking app only works if you do it for everyone .. like in Beijing.. You enter a building .. you scan .. local or foreign .. no difference.

 

[djuiiy]

7 hours ago, sweatalot said:

 

Tracing foeign tourists is always inappropriate. When will they get this?

 

A surefire recipe to avoid them coming. Or is it this what they want?

and bear in mind this isn't a short-term fix while the scary disease goes away, its permanent. But then again, mobile phones have been covertly locating users for decades, so what's new?

Maybe it will become fashionable to leave mobiles at home in lead boxes, so they are untraceable.

[The Barmbeker]

I would totally do this...if these idiots were anywhere near consistent!

So far Foodland and eeleven are the only shops I frequent who EVER tried to take my phone number and name!

Both took name and number and didn't bothgr about time of entry or exit!

In the meantime, both only check temperature...and off you go!

If anyone is telling me about the "excellent" Thai- tracing system and COVID- record for one more time, I will vomit into my keyboard!

[steven100]

oh stop moaning and have a drink  !!   you'll give yourself an ulcer  ...

[samsensam]

3 hours ago, Mung said:

If it's a Thai app it will be useless. 

 

nah, it it's a thai app it will be the best thing since sliced bread

[billd766]

59 minutes ago, Geordieabroad said:

It's got nothing to do with tracing foreign visitors in Thailand.

I live in Thailand and was advised to check my phone today by a friend in the U.K. and it's there, added without my knowledge or permission.

To check go to settings - google settings.

Although it is currently turned off and the app hasn't installed yet it's the 1st step in being able to track your every move

George Orwell was right, he just got the year wrong

Thank you for that tip. I just looked on my phone, the smeaky little <deleted> is switched off and hiding.

[DrTuner]

They are trying to shove in this electronic ankle brace for dirty farangs every chance they get.

 

Quote

They also reported that the new app will be used alongside the Thai Elite Card for well-heeled foreigners. 

 

These are the last people that want to be treated like prisoners in a CCP gulag. I'm one of them and ain't no bloody way they are getting my location data.

Edited August 20, 2020 by DrTuner

[Dap]

Much as they would like, I just can't imagine this will fly.

 

 

[3NUMBAS]

Spain reports 3,715 new coronavirus cases in post-lockdown record

Reuters•19 August 2020

 

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/spain-reports-record-3-715-153515679.html

[billd766]

1 hour ago, herwin1234 said:

lol. thanks to these kwits (whatever that means) Thailand has an extreme low number of infections. i guess "some people" will never see positivity.

"i guess "some people" will never see positivity."

 

But if you don't test many people you will never know how many infections there are in the country.

 

This government, like many before it has an aversion to truth and transparity. The people at the top decide what information should be released as they are smarter than the average Thai and want to do the thinking for the nation.

 

The only truths they are happy with are the ones that they put out themselves.

[Flying Saucage]

43 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

For the wealthy Thai Elite guys...instead of a mobile phone app, how about their own personal TH COVID nurse/assistant, follows and goes with them everywhere...  Now that would go over well with the tourist crowd...  Better than paying to be cooped up in a quarantine room.

 

 

Twice daily temperature checks (you know where...) But one sneeze, cough, fever or runny nose.... and you're off to quarantine!!!

 

THAT would really boost tourism! 

[aussienam]

There are thousands of retirees who cannot get back, who are not wanting to get back for a leisurely holiday at their own convenience, but out of necessity.  But, yet again I read another report of plans to allow tourists in before us.  We have invested hundreds of thousands to millions of Baht each into Thailand and spend way more per year than the average tourist, plus large bank deposits, but are still not being considered to be allowed to return.  This is utterly demoralising to have tourists prioritised over us.  Compassion is needed please.  

I am more than happy for a tracking app, an GPS bracelet, whatever they want to do.  Me and many others need to get back please.  

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

15 hours ago, Flying Saucage said:

THAT would really boost tourism! 

 

Thailand has the "natural resources" available to handle the task... Just needs to put them to work, so to speak. How many out of work bar girls and massage ladies are there right now looking for steady employment (after passing a brief government training program, of course).

[DrTuner]

1 hour ago, Geordieabroad said:

It's got nothing to do with tracing foreign visitors in Thailand.

I live in Thailand and was advised to check my phone today by a friend in the U.K. and it's there, added without my knowledge or permission.

To check go to settings - google settings.

Although it is currently turned off and the app hasn't installed yet it's the 1st step in being able to track your every move

George Orwell was right, he just got the year wrong

Indeed it is. "COVID-19 Exposure Notifications". That's Google's bluetooth based proximity system and it's the only one that has a chance of working. But IMHO the privacy concerns are of higher priority than a virus with IFR < 0.1%. Freedoms lost won't come back without blood letting.

 

Puyeo also tries to flog an opt-out system, in this I disagree with him. He's a tech guy so of course he's data hungry.

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-how-to-do-testing-and-contact-tracing-bde85b64072e

 

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9888358

Quote

To use the system, you need to download an official app from your region’s government public health authority.

 

Only need to download a spy app from your friendly CCP gulag appstore. If it was Google itself, I might consider. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by DrTuner

[Seeall]

7 hours ago, JusticeGB said:

What tourist will want to be tracked by the state. When they arrive at a hotel they are reported via the TM30 system to Immigration. If they visit a shop or something like a zoo they have to give a contact number. Effectively they are being tracked whenever they are in crowded places anyway. Just pile on lots of extra regulations on tourists to ensure that they never come back to Thailand again.

The point is he is trying to make like hes doing his job....

Always good to track the infectious dirty farang anyways....  it must be all their fault somehow, just need

to come up with more ideas on how that is...

Of course military and others could not possibly be infected....

[djayz]

1 hour ago, Gandtee said:

Be like me. I don't have a phone.

 

Honestly. I've thought of dumping this "smart phone" and going back to my beloved Nokia.

[86Tiger]

1 hour ago, dallen52 said:

That lends itself to having an intelligent and working parliament and politicians. 

This mob are all about themselves........

 

 

I am going to have to say this is not exclusive to Thailand.  It pretty much describes politicians at every level of government in US as well, most especially at federal level.

[jerolamo]

7 hours ago, from the home of CC said:

no, it doesn't because a solution that allows tourism in a pandemic doesn't exist (though many countries keep getting their health care systems repeatedly kicked in the teeth trying, though it is great business for the undertakers).  I couldn't stop laughing watching all the Brits running home from France when they declared quarantines, Monty Python in real life. Thailand doesn't need anything to do with that circus going on over there. What it needs, and also the rest of the world, is a workable vaccine. All the rest of this is BS, its just going around in circles between virus containment and rampant infection rates, whole nations banging their heads against walls in futility. Just because you want something to be a certain way because the alternative is painful doesn't alter the course of this pandemic - time for some people to grow up..

You're mind thinking is very easy to understand... so easy.

You should try to test yourself with a IQ test to convince yourself that your ideas are too much simpler and by your limitations, can not embed complex real life situations.

I appreciate you develop your mind thinking for everybody can see what is it and how bodies come to your point.

By the time, if it were a kind of Ebola virus, i would think differently and sure... more restrictively. We are talking about COVID-19. Don't panic and if you feel yourself in scary, please do consult a real psychologist.

[volsfan]

Why not just put an ankle monitor on them while you are at it. For the good of society and all. 

[Knocker33]

So by the time they start letting in foriengners they will probably need multiple tests, 21 day quarantine as there seem to be mysterious case showing up after 14 days and probably an ankle bracelet or a chip. I can see tourist falling over themselves to come to paranoid knee jerk Thailand 

[DrTuner]

This is worth adding here:

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-how-to-do-testing-and-contact-tracing-bde85b64072e

 

 

No, that's not worth losing the privacy. Instead governments better cough up and set up an army of contact tracers. It's not as efficient, but you won't lose your privacy. This is not an extinction level event, it's a virus that is worse than a flu but not by that much. One has to draw the line somewhere.

[Blumpie]

Thailand elite card... pffffttt...

Just leave your phone at your hotel.  This is as easy as 1-2-3.  

[bbi1]

8 hours ago, Shuya said:

time to get the burner phone ready

A burner phone that isn't a smartphone but an old school Nokia

[BernieOnTour]

They are really successful in keeping Anutin’s “dirty” farang tourists away ... 555

 

I heard already from 3 guys, who were keen to come back, they are looking for other alternatives, if they are forced to accept permanent tracking.

[Blumpie]

6 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

This is worth adding here:

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-how-to-do-testing-and-contact-tracing-bde85b64072e

 

 

No, that's not worth losing the privacy. Instead governments better cough up and set up an army of contact tracers. It's not as efficient, but you won't lose your privacy. This is not an extinction level event, it's a virus that is worse than a flu but not by that much. One has to draw the line somewhere.

In actuality (and sorry to barge in), Thailand can do anything it wants to privacy or no.  They do not share the same values as other governments around the world, nor do they necessarily want it.  It's the part of the "sign up" that we have when we arrive in thailand and the only recourse we have for action is to simply leave.  ????  

[jerolamo]

There is already many trackers applications in there... ask Google and Facebook and Apple to give you back all there tracking points, maybe go to make a stage in there own enterprises to learn something around (there border doesn't exclude people because of not rich, it will not cost Thai people more than any other one).

 

In fact, there is really no need to install anything more than what it is already installed when you buy a kind of i-phone or android phone. Just configure something easy (from any internet access, not on your mobile phone necessary) to get all your data moves of owner spied on.

 

But international laws did something for this to not be self activated and let the owner of the google account to choose if he want it (this is a kind of private life respect, not difficult to understand)... By force people to be tracked, they will go against the international law, they should then, assume this at next step forward.

 

No luck for Thailand country actually. Wish Thailand a best future to respect better they own citizen and international laws, but also there own Buddhist culture who seems to be denied by the authority (or maybe it is a new kind of Buddhism... where rich human or rich Thai human are greater than all other humans). Not so far in North of Thailand we already know Myanmar (who is not really a friend of Thailand) and there so special fake Buddhists (fascist one, not all of them i hope) who ask there own population to kill Rohingyas... and they kill lot of them.

Fact is that we can not pretend to be Buddhist and in the same time, talk about humans to be "dirty falang" or want to force people who are also clean with the law (all over the world) to spy them on there own mobile phone, or write on temple doors "Thai only". What does it mean ?

 

The positive point there would be to target all over the world what is this kind of new age Thailand kaki (and i have no problem with army, not all of people who wear uniform are fascist) government is doing against human laws and how they treat a pandemic situation with COVID-19 who kill between 1 to 5% of infected people, how they do not test and provide numbers who are out of any statistic logic, practice blackmail and force to reserve hotel 5 stars, double standard prices practices, and so on...

[Blumpie]

1 minute ago, jerolamo said:

 

 

how they do not test and provide numbers who are out of any statistic logic, practice blackmail and force to reserve hotel 5 stars, double standard prices practices, and so on...

The reason is they have changed and are full.  For those just arriving thinking they have found "paradise", the allure is soon gone.  Their form of tourism seems to be more of a predatory nature, fleecing as much money as they can get.  Who in their right mind thinks a holiday shopping in Bangkok is fun?  Not your typical north american.  Maybe Indian, Chinese, and others from the second world looking for this type of alleged "high quality" experience.

Stand back and look at places like Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket.  They are tourist traps, and over-rated at that.  It's about raking in as much money as they can get, full stop.  

Expatriates are not necessarily cared about and this may not change.