The Thai Covid App - so, i take it we'll all be downloading it to our phones then straight away ?

[Nirish guy]

So, the Thai Government are launching their Covid Too called "Thai Chana" ( meaning Thais will be Victorious apparently).

So, the plan is that everyone downloads the App to their phones and them use it to ( or more likely it will automatically) "check in and out" of all and any establishments / bars etc that we visit.

For example if you visit a bar and someone there gets infected with Covid the Government will know you have previously been there over that period and also who else was there too and can then send you and al others present a text message to warn you to go get tested or self isolate etc.

The Government state ( claim) that the only information they will receive about you from this App is your mobile number - however as we already know it's a legal requirement for everyone to register their mobile phone Sim cards using their I.D. in Thailand it would obviously be very simple for a Government to match that information up should they wish, giving them a full report on your home address, all places you've visited, everyone you've been with and your precise location at any time.

So, can I presume being the upright citizens and visitors that we all are no doubt that we'll all be rushing out to download the App on it's launch ( or maybe either just not bother and / or buy a second hand cheap phone with a second Sim card installed in it, with that to be left at home perhaps on a night out if and when the download may become a requirement rather than an request ?)

Of course with Covid in mind it's a great tool to help in that fight, it also would of course be a great tool for ANY Government for any other circumstance where they need to monitor ( and suppress perhaps) their citizens I would imagine !?

So, all rushing out to get it then I presume ??

[Dodger]

According to a recent article in Pattaya Mail, there will be an option for those who don't have mobile phones to write the required information in a log book which all businesses are supposedly going to provide.

I'm probably the only person left on the planet who doesn't lug my smart phone around with me 24/7, and have intentions on starting now.

I'm also not giving the government (any government) the capabilities to track my every move by using some app installed on my mobile device. Using Covid-19 as the governments rationale for building this next layer of tracking capabilities looks good on the surface, but I'm not buying it. They'll just have to look at my scribbles in the log books...and boy, do I have bad handwriting.

[Smiles]

...I'm probably the only person left on the planet who doesn't lug my smart phone around with me 24/7 ...You are not quite alone. I despise those little digital-fuckers-on-the-march.
Thais of course are much more into the whole nonsense than farangs, but barely I'm sure.

[Oliver2]

Me too.

[a447]

Same here.

My mobile doesn't have internet and is only used for text messages. It stays 24/7 in my hotel room.

Of we have to download the app (we have a similar app in Australia) them I'll do what nirish suggests and buy a cheap second phone.

[Brad the Impala]

Who knew that there were so many rebels on this forum, perhaps it goes with the territory!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDIF_N2KnJI

[Oliver2]

When I was eighteen, it seemed to me that I was the only boy in the world who preferred other boys to girls.
For the past God knows how many years, I thought that I was the only person in the world who didn't have or want a smart phone, or an i-phone whatever that is or was.

[Nirish guy]

I too wont be loading any App, either in Thailand or the UK for that matter ( as they too will be rolling theirs out shortly too no doubt and I dont believe a single word they say about security and that they wont ever use it to track you etc).

Mind you it's sort of little odds anyway as know just by having your mobile in your pocket, even without such an App install the phone companies ( and so the Government) can track you 24.7 anyway already and when then you then factor in and cross reference the data that the likes of facebook logs about you every day ( which no doubt the Government can read too if they really want to) they already have a full picture of your life and who you're with, where you go, where you've been, what you're eating and SO much more.

Aside from the tracking side of things genuine question - those who say they dont have a "smart phone" or they leave it in their homes etc, are you finding it tougher now to manage in getting through life and getting things "done".

I personally cant imagine having to go through every day without the hundred different things I use my phone for and I've too elderly relatives, both in their 80's, one "online" and one not ( intentionally) and the "not" online person who loves telling people they wouldn't be annoyed with all that nonsense and "they've managed up to now and dont intend to start jumping on the band wagon now" etc also spend a LOT of time asking they other person to "check this for them, order that for them, send an email about X" for them etc - so their "I'm not online and refuse to be" isn't even that true anymore.

So I'm wondering if it's the same with the "I leave my phone at home" group, is it habit / age or just plain stubbornness perhaps that causes that and DO you actually encounter several situations a day where HAVING your phone in your pocket WOULD make your life easier or not I wonder but just decide to muddle on through without it still maybe ?

[arsenal]

Mmm. Yes. None of you will download the app. Until Tescos or Emirates Airlines or The Taj Mahal Restaurant or Thailand or Nice Boys won't let you in without it. Then you will. Even the rebels.

[Patanawet]

That nice gentleman on Thai PR daily briefings stressed it is not an app. it is a platform. Only business owners need to register. That's what he said anyway.

[Dodger]

I

So I'm wondering if it's the same with the "I leave my phone at home" group, is it habit / age or just plain stubbornness perhaps that causes that and DO you actually encounter several situations a day where HAVING your phone in your pocket WOULD make your life easier or not I wonder but just decide to muddle on through without it still maybe ?

I'm not sure what category I belong in, but life for me doesn't have to be made any easier.

My daughter and son-in-law came to Thailand for the first time last October. I arranged a hotel on the seashore in Bang Saray right next to the boat docks because of the view and ambiance. I remember sitting on a boat dock with them just as the sun was rising on the very first morning of their trip. It was a beautiful morning. Several fishing boats could be seen off in the distance chugging their way to shore, a boat parked right next to where were sitting was unloading a net filled with octopus. and an old Korean man stood at the edge of the dock fishing with a hand-made bamboo Kisha rod. My son-in-law was busy taking pictures of the ocean with his smart phone to send to friends back home, and my daughter was busy searching the internet for something she wanted at the market. Was life made easier for them? Probably so...but they missed the moment...and to me...it's those moments that make life worth living.

.

[a447]

So I'm wondering if it's the same with the "I leave my phone at home" group, is it habit / age or just plain stubbornness perhaps that causes that and DO you actually encounter several situations a day where HAVING your phone in your pocket WOULD make your life easier or not I wonder but just decide to muddle on through without it still maybe ?

The phone is always charged and with me at home. It's always with me when I go out too, but I usually leave it in the car. I don't want it in my pocket.

If I'm out and about with people, I don't really want to be contacted. And in Thailand I'm only ever out with one of my 2 regular guys so I don't have any need to carry a phone.

When I travel I use an ipad for entertainment or to look for information, as the phone screen is too small.

But not having any access to a mobile phone would be difficult because it's definitely required in emergency situations.

So even if I downloaded the app it would be useless to me.

[Nirish guy]

Mmm. Yes. None of you will download the app. Until Tescos or Emirates Airlines or The Taj Mahal Restaurant or Thailand or Nice Boys won't let you in without it. Then you will. Even the rebels.

Sorry yes you're right, I should have added "if I have a choice" as that was sort of the point of the rest of my post above in that it's almost getting impossible to "function" now in the world unless you ARE online and connected ! As to whether that's a good thing or not I'm not so sure !

[arsenal]

And sometimes it feels like I'm in a sort of electronic evolution gone wrong world.

This morning in Burger King the guy was looking at the menu then finding the item on the BK app to see if he could get a discount then back to the menu and then back the app and he did this for virtually every item plus so many questions to the staff member and each answer was checked on the app. The result was that he was at the counter for over 20 minutes. Meanwhile the queue is getting restless because they've ordered their food on the app and yet it isn't there waiting for them when they walked through the door and their mood is blackened further when delivery driver after delivery driver departs with food for delivery that has been ordered on the app and still this guy is at the counter and he's still asking questions and flicking frantically to find the app discount he's convinced is there if only he could find it.

[Nirish guy]

See that's what's wrong with the world and the younger generation, they're being told everything you can "have it your way" whereas we were brought out with shops and carry outs telling us "you'll get it whatever bloody way we decide to serve it to you and you'd better be grateful or we might not even bother !" The younger generation need a dose of THAT reality spelt out to them for a while to lick them into shape ! ( god I sound like some 90 year pensioner cursing "those damned youngsters, it wasn't like that in my day your know ' - but it's bloody TRUE ! :)

PS I've experienced that very same App ordering thing in McDonalds here in the UK, where upon myself and my Bf walked in to the shop and I automatically went to walk up to the girl at the counter to place our order and got a look from my BF like "OMG dont be such a dick, nobody does that anymore! ". I then was dragged over to one of the many big interactive plasma screen things that were dotted about the place and had to stand with him and wait for what seemed like forever whilst he scrolled up and down and up and down and up and down the menu, searching for both the food he wanted in general and then him attempting to then add his additional instructions such as "no onions" etc.

Meanwhile by then as I realised that he was engrossed in the technology and with my having lost the will to live I quietly slipped back over towards my own counter girl and and proceed to ordered MY food, which was served to me quickly and efficiently and I was already on my way to find a seat whille he was still busy trying to get his credit card to be recognised at the machine built into the TV screen. I went ahead and started to eat as he sat waiting for his food order to be called out and crazily he STILL argued that "oh but the screen system is SO MUCH better as you get what you want and dont have to queue" - totally failing to notice that there WAS no queue as both he and all the other young SHEEP there were ALL also busy standing fighting with their own TV screens trying to order too, thus leaving the counter totally empty of customers !

I really do despair for the wit of youth of today sometimes !

[arsenal]

It's the same in the fucking supermarkets. Some dingbat yoof gets to the checkout counter and sends through his trolley full of beer and snacks. Then it turns out he doesn't have enough money on his phone to pay for it. Cue calls to umpteen friends to see who does have enough money on their phones and can send him some to pay for his shopping. He tries again with no success. Another call, another try and this time after 14 painstaking minutes he has managed to pay for the goods and while the beer and snacks have been going through the beep machine he's been very very busy doing something vital on his phone and now he notices he's got half a ton of stuff to carry and he needs to pack it up and he needs to buy some carrier bags but there's a minimum charge to use a phone so he has a long chat about how many carrier bags he needs to buy and then he buys them and then he tearfully puts his phone down and packs his shopping before leaving the checkout and he carries all the bags in one hand so he can do phone stuff with the other as he walks because his generation struggle to walk without tapping endlessly onto their keyboard only glancing up when they walk into someone doing the same thing coming the other way.

[christianpfc]

Mobile phone is indispensable for me when I'm travelling or in my room in Thailand arranging meeting with friends. When I'm with someone, my phone stays in my pocket (and it's on silent anyway). But now, in Germany, I'm offline most of the time.

Back to the app. I don't know if there such an app in Germany, but since restaurants opened yesterday (Fri15may2020), guest are required to leave their name address phone number, but it's all pen and paper (at least at the two places I have been).

[latintopxxx]

hahah...loving this topic...finally I have something in common with you lot...

[latintopxxx]

...however they (u choose whether its the phone company or the government) can already track u down via your mobile phone...those clever israelis been doing it ever since the ark was launched with great funfare...the app must makes it a lot easier for the authorities to contact u and warn u and help u...

[arsenal]

And don't even get me started on the coffin dodgers. They all demand the latest technology then spend their lives at war with it. They will have a collection of phones, each one having s specific job with one for calling (Nokia probably) one for apps (Apple probably) and one for some activity called 'everyday use' (Samsung probably) whatever that is. And yet whenever you meet them they will have the wrong phone for whatever it is they want to do. Pay for something...Oh No, that's on the other phone, call someone...Oh no that's on the other phone, download an app...Oh no the other phone only for apps and then there's the desire to link everything together, phones and accounts and computers and apps and addresses and contacts and loyalty cards and everything else. And the horror of this will impact directly upon you dear member because you will see the boy from God's own personal collection wesring tiny whities outside the go go bar and you will go to follow him in but some ol' timer will be ahead of you and he will flick his phone's screen side to side and up and down and ge will go into this app and that app and each one will ne examined twice and 10 minutes has now passed and all you can think about is THE boy and gramps is STILL looking and looking for the app that says he won't kill half the population with Chinalurgy and then he looks for a third time and it's bow 20 minutes and finally he turns to you and says that the app is on the other phone, the one with the apps and he did actually mean to get it on the everyday phone, the one he has with him but he didn't get round to it and he wants to discuss this matter with you but you can think of nothing except THE boy and it takes you 3 seconds to show your clearance certificate and you go into the bar and at that very second the boy comes down off the stage and hands his number to the mamasan as he's been offed by another customer and you are going home tomorrow and you leave the bar with hate in your heart and you want to kill the evil that is gramps, the man who denied you the off of your life but he is at another bar and he had started the whole process again but this time he's commandeered at least three staff members to assist him in this damnfanglethingamy business.

[Smiles]

A tour de force of magical ranting-and-writing if I've ever had the joy of reading! In another topic one might label it a very special "Babel of Diarrhea".
James Joyce where are you?

[dinagam]

And don't even get me started on the coffin dodgers. They all demand the latest technology then spend their lives at war with it.. and you leave the bar with hate in your heart and you want to kill the evil that is gramps

Don't kill them just yet. Get someone to steal their Zimmer frame or walking sticks, or wigs.