It probably was. It was also illegal. As much as you, I, or even public opinion may agree that something is right, we can't have public servants knowingly violate the law when it is convenient. To accept that would be to forfeit many of your liberties.

In my state the law said that this checking information could only be used for contact tracing. So when the law says this and the cops drive over it in in a bulldozer, it's a bit shit.

That said, in my state the cops recruited and flipped a criminal lawyer who then back doored her high profile clients and gave confidential and privileged information to them them in order to build cases.

I'd agree that is a good case. But I'd still object to this tracking. It's a slippery slope. Who determines what is worthy?

We might like one government administration and highly expect them to respect the privacy. But what about the next administration? We've just seen Trump say he will withhold funding for universities with "illegal protests". I'd fully expect his administration to abuse this tracking, in the name of law and order.

When these apps were rolled out, they were specifically advertised as private and only used for contact tracking and nothing more on the basis that we as a society want to maximize their use for tracking to be effective. Reneging on this promise will backfire in any future pandemic.