Vaccine passport pitfalls

Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. Massachusetts has been trying to roll out digital passports for Covid-19 vaccination cards. They’re s [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hey y’all, it’s Austin Carr in Boston. Massachusetts has been trying to roll out digital passports for Covid-19 vaccination cards. They’re surprisingly ineffective. But first… Today’s top tech news: - At the end of a rocky week for tech stocks, Apple had its [biggest one-day jump]( since July 2020 - The European Union is gearing up [to spend big]( on chip manufacturing - Spotify is adding Covid notices in an effort to stop [Joe Rogan-related boycotts]( Vaccine passport to nowhere On Jan. 15, the city of Boston introduced a new mandate requiring that patrons must show proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter certain indoor venues, including sit-down restaurants and bars. The city-wide order is meant to curb the recent surge in [coronavirus infections]( as the [pandemic drags on](, and the mayor has turned to digital apps to help streamline the screening process. Like many states and cities across the country and the world, Boston now has its own versions of a mobile vaccine passport. No need to carry around a crumpled CDC-branded diploma; instead you can flash your phone to a bouncer to prove your Moderna or Pfizer credentials. At least that’s the idea. But based on my travails with the system in Boston, it’s very hard to create an effective and seamless mobile passport service. And in this city at least, it’s unclear if developing one is even necessary. To start, the two apps made by Boston and the state of Massachusetts don’t do—well—much of anything. Boston’s app, B Together, functions mostly as a glorified photo album. Users who download the app are asked to upload a picture of their vaccination card. That’s it. The system doesn’t verify the card’s authenticity, and users are not required to show their B Together uploads as proof in person. The app is, essentially, just a place to store images. So why add the extra steps to a process that can be easily handled with a phone’s native photo app? A theoretically more reliable solution is the state’s website myvaxrecords.mass.gov. The service lets you put in some personal info, generate a digital copy of your vaccination history, and display a QR code when you go to a restaurant. The problem is that no one is actually scanning the codes—venues often don’t have the time or equipment to take the extra step. PJ McCann, a policy planner at the Boston Public Health Commission, told me that if venues didn’t have a QR-code scanner, “They can inspect visually.” But how can a bouncer eyeball a QR code? A BPHC spokesperson clarified that Boston establishments can glance at the information listed next to the codes, such as the brand of vaccine and date of the shot. This solution, while simple enough, may in reality not be any more secure than the photo. To me, both digital systems—one app to display unverified photos, another to display QR codes that aren’t scanned—seem kind of pointless. But there are other issues, too. For example, Massachusetts’s MyVaxRecords database only contains Massachusetts vaccination records. My wife, who received her shots and boosters in California before we moved to the area, has so far not been able to generate a QR code through our new state’s system. Neither the BPHC or Massachusetts Department of Public Health could explain how to port vaccination data from one state to another Inevitably, in the wild, none of this really matters. I popped into a few bars and restaurant in Boston’s touristy North End neighborhood and conducted an informal survey of Covid protocols. Many of the workers I spoke with said they were unaware of the B Together app or the state’s QR-code service. Several bartenders said they’ve seen customers flash QR codes, which they take at face value, since there’s no scanner they’ve been directed to use. One server said he’s seeing visitors use “lots of apps” (the city’s and state’s are two among many), but he couldn’t say which ones. Two restaurant managers said their customers are mostly split between showing their physical vaccination cards or a screenshot of them. Meanwhile, employees at Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and other store said they aren’t required to ask for proof of vaccination under the city’s current mandate. More often than not, bouncers in the city seem to accept whatever they’re showed by bargoers. Even if none of the records are authenticated, the hope among health officials is that the mandate will at least nudge people toward vaccination, and that digital passports, despite questions over [their ethics]( and [legality](, will incentivize adoption. Then again, the mandate only works if local venues follow the rule. When I ventured into an Irish pub and asked the bartender whether he’d encountered any of the digital passport apps, he told me, curtly, “We don’t have time for all that,” before turning his back. He’s not the only one. —[Austin Carr](mailto:acarr54@bloomberg.net) If you read one thing The Treasury Department is reconsidering the Internal Revenue Service’s [reliance on facial recognition software]( ID.me amid criticism of the company’s collection of images of tens of millions of Americans’ faces. What you need to know Ohio offered Intel $2.1 billion in incentives to [lure the chipmaker’s]( new factory operations to the state. The U.K. government approved the extradition of Mike Lynch to the U.S. to face [criminal fraud charges]( following a ruling that the founder of Autonomy was dishonest in the software company’s $11 billion sale to HP.  More than $80 million of digital assets were swiped from a decentralized finance platform in [the latest hack]( of cryptocurrency trading marketplaces. Deliveries that are very fast are also very expensive, the [Wall Street Journal]( reports. Follow Us More from Bloomberg Dig gadgets or video games? [Sign up for Power On]( to get Apple scoops, consumer tech news and more in your inbox on Sundays. [Sign up for Game On]( to go deep inside the video game business, delivered on Fridays. Why not try both? Like Fully Charged? | [Get unlimited access to Bloomberg.com](, where you'll find trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters. 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